Determining electric vehicle charging point locations considering drivers' daily activities

In this paper the daily temporal and spatial behavior of electric vehicles (EVs) is modelled using an activity-based (ActBM) microsimulation model for Flanders region (Belgium). Assuming that all EVs are completely charged at the beginning of the day, this mobility model is used to determine the percentage of Flemish vehicles that cannot cover their programmed daily trips and need to be recharged during the day. Assuming a variable electricity price, an optimization algorithm determines when and where EVs can be recharged at minimum cost for their owners. This optimization takes into account the individual mobility constraint for each vehicle, as they can only be charged when the car is stopped and the owner is performing an activity. From this information, the aggregated electric demand for Flanders is obtained, identifying the most overloaded areas at the critical hours. Finally it is also analyzed what activities EV owners are underway during their recharging period. From this analysis, different actions for public charging point deployment in different areas and for different activities are proposed.

Género y transporte: análisis de la movilidad del cuidado como punto de partida para construir una base de conocimiento más amplia de los patrones de movilidad. El caso de Madrid

Las limitaciones en la capacidad de movilidad pueden ser consideradas en la actualidad como una forma de discriminación tremenda y a la vez invisible dentro de la sociedad. Para poder evitar esta discriminación es necesario que las políticas de transporte, que hasta ahora han basado sus actuaciones particularmente sobre las necesidades de acceso al empleo, reconozcan las exigencias de las personas dependientes y de aquellas que realizan las tareas no remuneradas del cuidado de otros y de atención a la familia. Las personas que trabajan en las tareas domésticas, en la mayoría de los casos mujeres, tienen muchas dificultades para sincronizar sus obligaciones con los tiempos y las distancias. Estas personas desempeñan un trabajo diario, que tiene lugar tanto fuera como dentro del hogar y tienen necesidades específicas de movilidad. El problema principal es que este tipo de trabajo no suele ser tomado en consideración, ya que no entra en la esfera del trabajo remunerado. Pero es una labor que está estrictamente ligada a la actividad de la sociedad y es un elemento indispensable para el funcionamiento de la vida urbana. Es un trabajo real, que tiene lugar en el espacio urbano, que exige un considerable esfuerzo físico y emocional, y que ayuda a garantizar la calidad de la vida cotidiana. Es un aspecto indispensable a tener en cuenta en el ejercicio de las políticas públicas y sociales. Sobre la base de estas consideraciones se introduce el concepto “Movilidad del cuidado” (Sánchez de Madariaga, 2009a y 2009b), mediante el cual se reconoce la necesidad de evaluar y hacer visible los desplazamientos diarios asociados con el trabajo del cuidado. Por trabajo del cuidado se entiende el trabajo no remunerado, realizado por los adultos para los niños u otras personas dependientes, incluido el trabajo relacionado con el mantenimiento del hogar. El análisis de este tipo de viajes exige ciertos cambios significativos en las formas de recoger datos estadísticos. No se trata solo de sumar los desplazamientos que actualmente aparecen en las estadísticas como viajes de compras, acompañamiento, gestiones, cuidado de otros, etc. El problema es que los datos sobre movilidad se recogen con una serie de sesgos que infravaloran los viajes de cuidado: las estadísticas no cuentan los viajes cortos a pie y tampoco reflejan bien los viajes encadenados, ambos típicamente femeninos; no se deslindan con precisión los viajes de cuidado de otro tipo de viajes, de manera que muchos desplazamientos relacionados con la esfera reproductiva aparecen como viajes personales o de ocio y en muchos casos se encasillan en la categoría otros. Mediante esta investigación se pretende estimar el peso que la movilidad del cuidado tiene en el total de la movilidad y describirla de manera precisa en un contexto geográfico determinado, en el caso específico Madrid. Los estudios sobre el tema realizados hasta el momento reconocen la necesidad de llevar a cabo encuestas de movilidad que tengan en cuenta las variables socio económicas que caracterizan a la población y también se demanda la segregación de los datos recogidos por sexo, así como el uso del género como una categoría analítica. Igualmente es indispensable atribuir la misma importancia que tienen los viajes relacionados con la esfera productiva a los que están relacionados con la esfera reproductiva. No obstante, es solo mediante la introducción del concepto de “movilidad del cuidado” que se propone una nueva categorización de los motivos de desplazamiento dentro de las “clásicas” encuestas de movilidad y, por primera vez, mediante esta investigación se aplica este concepto a un ejemplo práctico a partir del cual queda en evidencia la necesidad de un cambio de enfoque en las políticas de transporte. Así, a través el uso de encuestas cuantitativas y cualitativas realizadas ad hoc sobre la base de la metodología propuesta, se capturan los patrones de viajes significativos para poder describir en maneara exhaustiva la movilidad de las personas que tienen responsabilidades de cuidado. El objetivo es crear una base de conocimiento más amplia sobre los patrones de movilidad, comportamientos y necesidades, además de mejorar los conceptos operacionales y establecer políticas de transporte más equitativas, que respondan de mejor manera a las necesidades de género, beneficiando así a toda la sociedad. ABSTRACT Nowadays, limitations in urban mobility can be considered as some type of extreme discrimination, which remains invisible to the society. In order to avoid this kind of discrimination, new transport policies are required, especially considering that so far they have been based and organized particularly in relation to the needs derived from the access to employment. These policies must take into account the demands of people depending on the support of others as well as of unpaid caregivers in charge of looking after other individuals and taking care of the family. Most of the people devoted to domestic work, which in the vast majority of cases is carried out by women, find it difficult to coordinate their obligations with time and distances. These people carry out a daily job that takes place both inside their homes as well as outside, and they have specific mobility needs. The main issue is that this type of work is usually not taken into consideration, since it is not included under the scope of paid employment. However, this work is strictly related to the activities of society and is therefore a crucial element in the functioning of urban life. It is an actual job that takes place in an urban space, requires a considerable amount of physical and emotional effort and guarantees quality of life on a daily basis. This is an important aspect that should be taken into account when drafting public and social policies. The concept of “Mobility of care” (Sánchez de Madariaga, 2009a and 2009b) is introduced under these considerations. This concept acknowledges the need to evaluate and identify daily movements from one place to another that are related to caregiving. Caregiving is understood, in this case, as unpaid work that is carried out by adults for children and other people that depend on the support of others, and it also includes duties related to home maintenance. The analysis of these types of movements requires some significant changes in the way in which statistic data is gathered. The idea is to not only add up the movements that appear in statistics such as shopping trips, accompanying someone, dealings, caregiving, etc. The problem with data on mobility is that it is gathered with bias that undervalues mobility related to caregiving: statistics do not take into consideration short trips that are made walking nor do they properly reflect connected trips, both of which are typically feminine; moreover, there is an imprecise differentiation of trips related to caregiving and other kind of trips, and because of that, many of the trips related to the reproductive sphere are considered personal or recreational trips, and are many times labelled as others. This investigation aims to evaluate the importance that mobility of care has in mobility in general, describing it in a precise manner within a specific geographical context that in this case is Madrid. To this date, most of the studies on this subject have acknowledged the need to carry out mobility surveys that include socio economic variables that characterize the population and they have also requested that collected data is segregated by sex and that gender is used as an analytical category. Likewise, it is fundamental to give the same importance to mobility related to the sphere of reproduction as to that related to the sphere of productiveness. However, it is only through the implementation of the concept of “mobility of care” that a new categorization of mobility, within classic mobility surveys, is proposed. Also, for the first time and by this investigation, this concept is applied to a practical case, shining a light on the need to change the focus of transport policies. Through the use of ad hoc quantitative and qualitative surveys based on the proposed methodology, the patterns of relevant movements are identified in order to thoroughly describe the mobility of people responsible of caregiving. The aim is to create a broader knowledge base on patterns of mobility, behaviour and necessities, in addition to improving functional concepts and transport policies to make them more equitable and responsive to gender needs, thus benefitting society as a whole.

The atypical codon usage of the plant psbA gene may be the remnant of an ancestral bias

The psbA gene of the chloroplast genome has a codon usage that is unusual for plant chloroplast genes. In the present study the evolutionary status of this codon usage is tested by reconstructing putative ancestral psbA sequences to determine the pattern of change in codon bias during angiosperm divergence. It is shown that the codon biases of the ancestral genes are much stronger than all extant flowering plant psbA genes. This is related to previous work that demonstrated a significant increase in synonymous substitution in psbA relative to other chloroplast genes. It is suggested, based on the two lines of evidence, that the codon bias of this gene currently is not being maintained by selection. Rather, the atypical codon bias simply may be a remnant of an ancestral codon bias that now is being degraded by the mutation bias of the chloroplast genome, in other words, that the psbA gene is not at equilibrium. A model for the evolution of selective pressure on the codon usage of plant chloroplast genes is discussed.

Viral capsid mobility: A dynamic conduit for inactivation

Mass spectrometry and fluorescent probes have provided direct evidence that alkylating agents permeate the protein capsid of naked viruses and chemically inactivate the nucleic acid. N-acetyl-aziridine and a fluorescent alkylating agent, dansyl sulfonate aziridine, inactivated three different viruses, flock house virus, human rhinovirus-14, and foot and mouth disease virus. Mass spectral studies as well as fluorescent probes showed that alkylation of the genome was the mechanism of inactivation. Because particle integrity was not affected by selective alkylation (as shown by electron microscopy and sucrose gradient experiments), it was reasoned that the dynamic nature of the viral capsid acts as a conduit to the interior of the particle. Potential applications include fluorescent labeling for imaging viral genomes in living cells, the sterilization of blood products, vaccine development, and viral inactivation in vivo.

Attentional bias toward fear-related stimuli: An investigation with nonselected children and adults and children with anxiety disorders

Research investigating anxiety-related attentional bias for emotional information in anxious and nonanxious children has been equivocal with regard to whether a bias for fear-related stimuli is unique to anxious children or is common to children in general. Moreover, recent cognitive theories have proposed that an attentional bias for objectively threatening stimuli may be common to all individuals, with this effect enhanced in anxious individuals. The current study investigated whether an attentional bias toward fear-related pictures could be found in nonselected children (n = 105) and adults (n = 47) and whether a sample of clinically anxious children (n = 23) displayed an attentional bias for fear-related pictures over and above that expected for nonselected children. Participants completed a dot-probe task that employed fear-related, neutral, and pleasant pictures. As expected, both adults and children showed a stronger attentional bias toward fear-related pictures than toward pleasant pictures. Consistent with some findings in the childhood domain, the extent of the attentional bias toward fear-related pictures did not differ significantly between anxious children and nonselected children. However, compared with nonselected children, anxious children showed a stronger attentional bias overall toward affective picture stimuli. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Selective processing of masked and unmasked verbal threat material in anxiety: Influence of an immediate acute stressor

Attentional biases for threat were investigated using a computerised version of the emotional Stroop task. The study examined the influence of state and trait anxiety by employing a student sample assigned to high trait anxious (HTA; n = 32) or low trait anxious (LTA; n = 32) groups on the basis of questionnaire scores, and state anxiety was manipulated within participants through the threat of electric shock. Threatening words that were either unrelated (e.g., cancer, danger) or related to the threat of shock (e.g., electrocute, shock) were presented to participants both within and outside of awareness. In the latter condition a backward masking procedure was used to prevent awareness and exposure thresholds between the target and mask were individually set for each participant. For unmasked trials the HTA group showed significant interference in colour naming for all threat words relative to control words when performing under the threat of shock, but not in the shock safe condition. For the masked trials, despite chance performance in being able to identify the lexical status of the items, HTA participants showed facilitated colour naming for all threat words relative to control items when performing under threat of shock, but this effect was not evident in the shock safe condition. Neither valence of the items nor the threat of shock influenced colour naming latencies in either exposure mode for the LTA group.

Cascaded Bayesian processes: an account of bias in orientation perception

Following adaptation to an oriented (1-d) signal in central vision, the orientation of subsequently viewed test signals may appear repelled away from or attracted towards the adapting orientation. Small angular differences between the adaptor and test yield 'repulsive' shifts, while large angular differences yield 'attractive' shifts. In peripheral vision, however, both small and large angular differences yield repulsive shifts. To account for these tilt after-effects (TAEs), a cascaded model of orientation estimation that is optimized using hierarchical Bayesian methods is proposed. The model accounts for orientation bias through adaptation-induced losses in information that arise because of signal uncertainties and neural constraints placed upon the propagation of visual information. Repulsive (direct) TAEs arise at early stages of visual processing from adaptation of orientation-selective units with peak sensitivity at the orientation of the adaptor (theta). Attractive (indirect) TAEs result from adaptation of second-stage units with peak sensitivity at theta and theta+90 degrees , which arise from an efficient stage of linear compression that pools across the responses of the first-stage orientation-selective units. A spatial orientation vector is estimated from the transformed oriented unit responses. The change from attractive to repulsive TAEs in peripheral vision can be explained by the differing harmonic biases resulting from constraints on signal power (in central vision) versus signal uncertainties in orientation (in peripheral vision). The proposed model is consistent with recent work by computational neuroscientists in supposing that visual bias reflects the adjustment of a rational system in the light of uncertain signals and system constraints.

Online trendy topics detection in microblogs with selective user monitoring under cost constraints

As microblog services such as Twitter become a fast and convenient communication approach, identification of trendy topics in microblog services has great academic and business value. However detecting trendy topics is very challenging due to huge number of users and short-text posts in microblog diffusion networks. In this paper we introduce a trendy topics detection system under computation and communication resource constraints. In stark contrast to retrieving and processing the whole microblog contents, we develop an idea of selecting a small set of microblog users and processing their posts to achieve an overall acceptable trendy topic coverage, without exceeding resource budget for detection. We formulate the selection operation of these subset users as mixed-integer optimization problems, and develop heuristic algorithms to compute their approximate solutions. The proposed system is evaluated with real-time test data retrieved from Sina Weibo, the dominant microblog service provider in China. It's shown that by monitoring 500 out of 1.6 million microblog users and tracking their microposts (about 15,000 daily) with our system, nearly 65% trendy topics can be detected, while on average 5 hours earlier before they appear in Sina Weibo official trends.

Selective inhibition of the human tie-1 promoter with triplex-forming oligonucleotides targeted to ets binding sites

The Tie receptors (Tie-1 and Tie-2/Tek) are essential for angiogenesis and vascular remodeling/integrity. Tie receptors are up-regulated in tumor-associated endothelium, and their inhibition disrupts angiogenesis and can prevent tumor growth as a consequence. To investigate the potential of anti-gene approaches to inhibit tie gene expression for anti-angiogenic therapy, we have examined triple-helical (triplex) DNA formation at 2 tandem Ets transcription factor binding motifs (designated E-1 and E-2) in the human tie-1 promoter. Various tie-1 promoter deletion/mutation luciferase reporter constructs were generated and transfected into endothelial cells to examine the relative activities of E-1 and E-2. The binding of antiparallel and parallel (control) purine motif oligonucleotides (21-22 bp) targeted to E-1 and E-2 was assessed by plasmid DNA fragment binding and electrophoretic mobility shift assays. Triplex-forming oligonucleotides were incubated with tie-1 reporter constructs and transfected into endothelial cells to determine their activity. The Ets binding motifs in the E-1 sequence were essential for human tie-1 promoter activity in endothelial cells, whereas the deletion of E-2 had no effect. Antiparallel purine motif oligonucleotides targeted at E-1 or E-2 selectively formed strong triplex DNA (K(d) approximately 10(-7) M) at 37 degrees C. Transfection of tie-1 reporter constructs with triplex DNA at E-1, but not E-2, specifically inhibited tie-1 promoter activity by up to 75% compared with control oligonucleotides in endothelial cells. As similar multiple Ets binding sites are important for the regulation of several endothelial-restricted genes, this approach may have broad therapeutic potential for cancer and other pathologies involving endothelial proliferation/dysfunction.

Investigating G protein signalling bias at the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor in yeast

Background and Purpose The glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor performs an important role in glycaemic control, stimulating the release of insulin. It is an attractive target for treating type 2 diabetes. Recently, several reports of adverse side effects following prolonged use of GLP-1 receptor therapies have emerged: most likely due to an incomplete understanding of signalling complexities. Experimental Approach We describe the expression of the GLP-1 receptor in a panel of modified yeast strains that couple receptor activation to cell growth via single Gα/yeast chimeras. This assay enables the study of individual ligand-receptor G protein coupling preferences and the quantification of the effect of GLP-1 receptor ligands on G protein selectivity. Key Results The GLP-1 receptor functionally coupled to the chimeras representing the human Gαs, Gαi and Gαq subunits. Calculation of the dissociation constant for a receptor antagonist, exendin-3 revealed no significant difference between the two systems. We obtained previously unobserved differences in G protein signalling bias for clinically relevant therapeutic agents, liraglutide and exenatide; the latter displaying significant bias for the Gαi pathway. We extended the use of the system to investigate small-molecule allosteric compounds and the closely related glucagon receptor. Conclusions and Implications These results provide a better understanding of the molecular events involved in GLP-1 receptor pleiotropic signalling and establish the yeast platform as a robust tool to screen for more selective, efficacious compounds acting at this important class of receptors in the future. © 2014 The Authors. British Journal of Pharmacology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The British Pharmacological Society.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

Electroreflectance characterization of AlInGaN/GaN high-electron mobility heterostructures

Room temperature electroreflectance (ER) spectroscopy has been used to study the fundamental properties of AlxInyGa${}_{1-x-y}$N/AlN/GaN heterostructures under different applied bias. The (0001)-oriented heterostructures were grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy on sapphire. The band gap energy of the AlxInyGa${}_{1-x-y}{\rm{N}}$ layers has been determined from analysis of the ER spectra using Aspnes' model. The obtained values are in good agreement with a nonlinear band gap interpolation equation proposed earlier. Bias-dependent ER allows one to determine the sheet carrier density of the two-dimensional electron gas and the barrier field strength.

Bias in peripheral depression biomarkers

BACKGROUND: To aid in the differentiation of individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) from healthy controls, numerous peripheral biomarkers have been proposed. To date, no comprehensive evaluation of the existence of bias favoring the publication of significant results or inflating effect sizes has been conducted. METHODS: Here, we performed a comprehensive review of meta-analyses of peripheral nongenetic biomarkers that could discriminate individuals with MDD from nondepressed controls. PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO databases were searched through April 10, 2015. RESULTS: From 15 references, we obtained 31 eligible meta-analyses evaluating biomarkers in MDD (21,201 cases and 78,363 controls). Twenty meta-analyses reported statistically significant effect size estimates. Heterogeneity was high (I2 ≥ 50%) in 29 meta-analyses. We plausibly assumed that the true effect size for a meta-analysis would equal the one of its largest study. A significant summary effect size estimate was observed for 20 biomarkers. We observed an excess of statistically significant studies in 21 meta-analyses. The summary effect size of the meta-analysis was higher than the effect of its largest study in 25 meta-analyses, while 11 meta-analyses had evidence of small-study effects. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that there is an excess of studies with statistically significant results in the literature of peripheral biomarkers for MDD. The selective publication of 'positive studies' and the selective reporting of outcomes are possible mechanisms. Effect size estimates of meta-analyses may be inflated in this literature.

Bias in emerging biomarkers for bipolar disorder

BACKGROUND: To date no comprehensive evaluation has appraised the likelihood of bias or the strength of the evidence of peripheral biomarkers for bipolar disorder (BD). Here we performed an umbrella review of meta-analyses of peripheral non-genetic biomarkers for BD. METHOD: The Pubmed/Medline, EMBASE and PsycInfo electronic databases were searched up to May 2015. Two independent authors conducted searches, examined references for eligibility, and extracted data. Meta-analyses in any language examining peripheral non-genetic biomarkers in participants with BD (across different mood states) compared to unaffected controls were included. RESULTS: Six references, which examined 13 biomarkers across 20 meta-analyses (5474 BD cases and 4823 healthy controls) met inclusion criteria. Evidence for excess of significance bias (i.e. bias favoring publication of 'positive' nominally significant results) was observed in 11 meta-analyses. Heterogeneity was high for (I 2 ⩾ 50%) 16 meta-analyses. Only two biomarkers met criteria for suggestive evidence namely the soluble IL-2 receptor and morning cortisol. The median power of included studies, using the effect size of the largest dataset as the plausible true effect size of each meta-analysis, was 15.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that there is an excess of statistically significant results in the literature of peripheral biomarkers for BD. Selective publication of 'positive' results and selective reporting of outcomes are possible mechanisms.

The development of selective copying: children’s learning from an expert versus their mother

This study tested the prediction that, with age, children should rely less on familiarity and more on expertise in their selective social learning. Experiment 1 (N=50) found that 5- to 6-year-olds copied the technique their mother used to extract a prize from a novel puzzle box, in preference to both a stranger and an established expert. This bias occurred despite children acknowledging the expert model’s superior capability. Experiment 2 (N=50) demonstrated a shift in 7-to 8-year-olds towards copying the expert. Children aged 9- to 10-years did not copy according to a model bias. The findings of a follow-up study (N=30) confirmed that, instead, they prioritized their own – partially flawed – causal understanding of the puzzle box.