Cooperative operation strategy of electric vehicle and photovoltaic power station considering carbon reduction benefit under dynamic electricity price.

In the context of the global green and low-carbon transformation, microgrids containing renewable energy have been widely developed. At present, renewable energy generation has the disadvantages of instability and low energy density. In addition, the high proportion of electric vehicles (EVs) connected to the state grid will cause different degrees of disturbance to its safe operation. Therefore, a coordinated operation strategy of EV and photovoltaic (PV)-energy-storage charging stations induced by dynamic electricity price considering carbon reduction benefit is proposed. On the power generation side, a dual-axis PV tracking control method with "fixed frequency + variable frequency" control is proposed. One day is used as a period to divide the time segments, and the same time segment uses the fixed frequency tracking method, while different time segments use the variable frequency tracking method to improve the power generation efficiency. On the electricity consumption side, a dynamic electricity price strategy is adopted, using the minimum carbon reduction cost as the reward function, optimizing the dynamic electricity price under the minimum carbon reduction cost using the deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm to promote the shifting of EV charging load to the effective hours of PV generation. In conclusion, the simulation analysis is carried out in Zibo City, and the generation capacity of the proposed tracking method on the power generation side is improved by about 32% compared with the fixed PV generation capacity. Compared with the time-of-use electricity price, the optimized dynamic electricity price under the minimum carbon reduction cost can better promote the load transfer and photoelectric consumption of EVs and reduce the carbon reduction cost.

Ionizing Radiation: Effective Physical Agents for Economic Crop Seed Priming and the Underlying Physiological Mechanisms.

To overcome various factors that limit crop production and to meet the growing demand for food by the increasing world population. Seed priming technology has been proposed, and it is considered to be a promising strategy for agricultural sciences and food technology. This technology helps to curtail the germination time, increase the seed vigor, improve the seedling establishment, and enhance the stress tolerance, all of which are conducive to improving the crop yield. Meanwhile, it can be used to reduce seed infection for better physiological or phytosanitary quality. Compared to conventional methods, such as the use of water or chemical-based agents, X-rays, gamma rays, electron beams, proton beams, and heavy ion beams have emerged as promising physics strategies for seed priming as they are time-saving, more effective, environmentally friendly, and there is a greater certainty for yield improvement. Ionizing radiation (IR) has certain biological advantages over other seed priming methods since it generates charged ions while penetrating through the target organisms, and it has enough energy to cause biological effects. However, before the wide utilization of ionizing priming methods in agriculture, extensive research is needed to explore their effects on seed priming and to focus on the underlying mechanism of them. Overall, this review aims to highlight the current understanding of ionizing priming methods and their applicability for promoting agroecological resilience and meeting the challenges of food crises nowadays.

Photoacoustic imaging of living mice enhanced with a low-cost contrast agent.

One of the advantages of photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is that its image contrast may come from exogenous agents. Such advantage leads to the development of a great number of exogenous probes. However, the biosafety of most of these contrast agents has not yet been confirmed, thus hindering their clinical translation. In this work, we report on the utilization of a clinically commonly used nutritional medicine, the Intralipid, as a new contrast agent for photoacoustic imaging. Intralipid consists of soybean oil, lecithin and glycerin and has long been adapted in clinical practices, mainly as a parenteral nutrition. In our study, we found that with Intralipid, the imaging sensitivity of PAI can be effectively enhanced, as demonstrated in in vivo imaging of different organs of nude mice. Further imaging studies on cancerous mice showed not only a twofold PA signal enhancement, but also a strong and long-lasting signal aggregation in the tumor region. Our result revealed the potential of Intralipid to be used in clinical PAI applications, since it is clinically safe, and can be easily prepared at very low cost.

[Live cell fluorescent imaging and cytotoxicity assessment of pH fluorescent probe based on styrylcyanine dyes].

OBJECTIVE: To prepare a pH fluorescence probe based on styrylcyanine dyes for live cell imaging. METHODS: The Probe 1 was prepared by reaction of 4-pyridinecarboxaldehyde with 1,1,2-trimethylbenz[e]indole. The influence of pH on the fluorescent properties was examined, and the cell viability was examined using cell counting kit-8. The Probe 1 was used as a pH fluorescence probe in living cell. RESULTS: Probe 1 emitted green fluorescence under neutral and basic conditions but orange fluorescence under acid condition. Probe 1 selectively stained the cytoplasmic regions of living cells without significantly affecting the cell viability. CONCLUSION: The pH-sensitive fluorescent probe prepared based on styrylcyanine possesses good ability of cell membrane permeation for live cell fluorescent imaging.