Local Utilization Research Articles

Multiple Order Local Information model for link prediction in complex networks

As a classical problem in the field of complex networks, link prediction has attracted much attention from researchers, which is of great significance to help us understand the evolution and dynamic development mechanisms of networks. Although various network type-specific algorithms have been proposed to tackle the link prediction problem, most of them suppose that the network structure is dominated by the Triadic Closure Principle. We still lack an adaptive and comprehensive understanding of network formation patterns for predicting potential links. In addition, it is valuable to investigate how network local information can be better utilized. To this end, we proposed a novel method named Link prediction using Multiple Order Local Information (MOLI) that exploits the local information from the neighbors of different distances, with parameter that can be a prior-driven based on prior knowledge, or data-driven by solving an optimization problem on observed networks. MOLI defined a local network diffusion process via random walks on the graph, resulting in better use of network information. We show that MOLI outperforms the other 12 widely used link prediction methods on 15 different types of simulated and real-world networks. We also conclude that there are different patterns of local information utilization for different networks, including social networks, communication networks, biological networks, etc. In particular, the classical common neighbor-based methods are not as adaptable to all social networks as it is perceived to be; instead, some of the social networks obey the Quadrilateral Closure Principle which preferentially connects paths of length three.

A new Philippine record of the monotypic genus Scorodocarpus Beccari (Strombosiaceae) from Balabac Island, Palawan

Scorodocarpus borneensis (Baill.) Becc., a tree that exudes garlic or onion smell, was discovered growing in a secondary lowland forest of Balabac Island in the Palawan Biogeographic Region. The tropical tree species also occurs in Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra. Our finding represents the first record of this monotypic genus from the Philippines. Here we provide information on the taxonomy, morphology, vernacular name, ecology, geographical distribution, conservation status, and local utilization of S. borneensis.

Recalibration of existing pedotransfer functions to estimate soil bulk density at a regional scale

AbstractSoil bulk density (ρb) is an important indicator of soil quality, productivity, compaction and porosity. Despite its importance, ρb is often omitted from global datasets due to the costs of making many direct ρb measurements and the difficulty of direct measurement on rocky, sandy, very dry, or very wet soils. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are deployed to address these limitations. Using readily available soil properties, PTFs employ estimator equations to fit existing datasets to estimate properties like ρb. However, PTF performance often declines when applied to soils outside those in the training dataset. Potentially, recalibrating existing PTFs using new observations would leverage the power of large datasets used in the original PTF derivation, while updating information based on new soil observations. Here, we evaluate such a recalibration approach for ρb estimation, benchmarking its performance against two alternatives: the original, uncalibrated PTFs, and novel, local PTFs derived solely from new soil observations. Using a ρb dataset of N = 360 total observations obtained in West Azerbaijan, Iran, we varied the local dataset size (with N = 15, 30, 60, and 360) and recalibrated four existing PTFs with these data. Local PTFs were generated based on stepwise multiple linear regression for the same datasets. The same PTFs (original, recalibrated, and local) were also applied to the study area, and the resulting ρb estimates were compared with the global SoilGrids dataset. Recalibration of PTFs reduced errors relative to the original uncalibrated PTFs; for instance, the NSE increased from −22.07 to 0.30 (uncalibrated) to 0.20–0.41 (recalibrated), and RMSE decreased from 0.12 to 0.60 Mg m−3 (uncalibrated) to 0.10–0.13 Mg m−3 (recalibrated). The recalibrated PTFs performance was comparable to or better than local PTFs applied to the same data. Recalibration of existing PTFs with local/regional uses provides a viable alternative to the use of global datasets or the development of local PTFs in data‐scarce regions.Highlights Existing global PTFs were calibrated and tested using a small dataset for local utilisation. Several new local PTFs were also developed using the same datasets. Recalibration of existing global PTFs is comparable to or more accurate than developing new PTFs.

Strength and microscopic mechanism analysis of CFBCA-based geopolymer-Pisha sandstone cement composite soil.

Solidification of soil mass by geopolymer is a novel technology that can be used to prevent soil and water loss in the Pisha sandstone area of the middle reaches of the Yellow River. In this paper, to realize the effective utilization of a large number of loose Pisha sandstone and circulating fluidized bed combustion fly ash by adding combustion fly ash into Pisha sandstone cement-soil by alkali excitation, we prepared CFBCA-based geopolymer-Pisha sandstone cement composite soil, which is often used in agricultural engineering. The results show that the content of (C, N)-A-S-H gel in composite soil is affected by alkali equivalent and alkali excitation temperature, while the content is the main factor affecting the strength of composite soil. However, (C, N)-A-S-H gel will gradually transform into chabazite (gmelinite) crystal in a high-alkali environment, which will eventually lead to expansion and cracking occurring in the samples. When the alkali excitation temperature is 20°C, and the alkali equivalent is 5%, the CFBCA-based geopolymer-Pisha sandstone cement composite soil is the optimal physicochemical reaction condition. At this time, the strength of the composite soil is 6.85MPa; the porosity is 23.88%; and the proportion of internal micro-pores is 16.32%. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for the practical application of CFBCA-based geopolymer-Pisha sandstone cement composite soil, and also provide a scientific basis for the local resource utilization of Pisha sandstone and bed combustion fly ash.

S-shaped narrow framing, skewness and the demand for insurance

The existing literature in insurance economics has shown that narrow framing can explain why people buy too little insurance compared to what standard theory predicts. However, there is also ample evidence suggesting people sometimes buy too much insurance. In this paper, we assume S-shaped narrow framing, i.e., the local utility function for evaluating the net insurance payoff is convex in the loss domain but concave in the gain domain, and show that it can reconcile with both insurance puzzles simultaneously. Especially, we show the policyholder under S-shaped narrow framing is more likely to underinsure more negatively skewed risks of loss but to overinsure less negatively skewed risks of loss when only coinsurance is offered. We further characterize the optimal insurance scheme under S-shaped narrow framing while incentive compatibility is satisfied. It contains a straight deductible when the net insurance payoff is negative but partial insurance when the net insurance payoff is positive.

Numerical Simulation of Charging Biochar Composite Briquette to Blast Furnace

Partial replacement of coal and coke by biomass/biochar in the blast furnace (BF) ironmaking is important role to reduce CO2 emissions. In this research, numerical investigations were conducted on blast furnace (BF) operation with biochar composite briquette (BCB) charging. The BCB was with 11.1 mass% carbon, 72.7 mass% magnetite, 11.25 mass% wustite, 0.77 mass% metallic iron, and 4.67 mass% gangue, and the BCB charging ratio was from 0 to 60% Results revealed that in the BF operation with BCB charging, the BCB iron-oxide reached a full reduction, but the overall gasification degree of BCB biochar decreased with the increase of BCB charging ratio. By charging BCB, the thermal state in the upper BF was considerably altered, but it was insignificantly influenced in the lower BF. By charging BCB; ore reduction was retarded in the upper BF but was prompted near the zone with a temperature of 1173 K. Under a low BCB charging ratio, local gas utilization tended to increase in the mid BF but tended to decrease in the upper BF. Further increasing BCB charging ratio lead to a decrease in local gas utilization. To ensure BF smooth running and maximizing biochar input, the optimal BCB charging ratio was 40%. Under this condition, the BCB biochar of 89.3 kg/tHM could be completely utilized, and the BF coke rate was decreased by 92.1 kg/tHM.

Local Content Utilization and Product Quality Standards Promotion for Industrial and Machine Tools Processes Application

The research titled, local contents utilization and product quality standards promotion for industrial and machine tools processes application used oils of plant origin; Mahogany Seed Oil (MSO) and Cashew Nut Oil (CNO) to produce cutting fluids. These oils were used as base oils to formulate cutting fluids and were used in straight turning of low carbon steel through factorial design of experiment. Their performances in terms of resulting surface roughness (Ra) of machined samples) and heat dissipation tendency was evaluated. Also, the determination of some characteristics of the formulated cutting fluids was carried out. The two vegetable oils extracted were mixed with water in an appropriate ratio separately. The oil – water mixtures were finally blended with the necessary additives to obtain the various cutting fluids. Before machining, the flash points, viscosities and acidities of the cutting fluids were determined. During machining, the tool – work interface temperatures were recorded using digital thermocouple and the Ra of the machined samples was evaluated afterward using scanning electron microscope (SEM) The performances and some characteristics of the formulated cutting fluids were compared with that of a control sample (CS). The heat removal ability was best achieved by MSOCF being locally available vegetable oil-based cutting fluid attaining a temperature of 32oC at the highest cutting speed of 80mpm. Similarly, CNOCF produced the best surface roughness which range between 1.0675µm and 1.5715µm for all levels of cutting speeds. Besides the same MSOCF proved to be the safest from fire hazard with the highest flash point of 237oC. CNOCF has the highest viscosity at 40oC and 80oC being 134cp and 96cp. MSOCF was found to be the best among the cutting fluids in conducting heat away from tool-work piece interface and was followed by CNOCF. From the foregoing, it can be concluded that locally available vegetable oils can be used in the production of cutting fluids for machining operations. Hence, the vegetable oils cutting fluids can then conveniently substitute the conventional (mineral oil based) cutting fluids for all machining processes and operations under various operating conditions as coolants and lubricants. They could also be synergized to compete favorably with mineral based cutting fluids.

The Reimbursement Rate of New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme and Self-Rated Health Among Rural Middle-Aged and Elderly.

ObjectivesThe ultimate goal of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) is to improve physical and psychological health and aim to provide equitable, affordable, cost-effective healthcare services for all rural people. One of our major concerns from the perspective of policy outcome is whether middle-aged and elderly can benefit from the insurance to improve self-rated health. The main objectives of this study are to answer the questions that the reimbursement rate of the NRCMS is a possible explanation of why and how rural middle-aged and elderly shift from non-medical service inputs to medical service to produce health based on a family production theory.MethodsData were obtained from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) conducted in 2018, which involved 1,030 rural adults aged 45 years and older, and ordinal logistic regression estimator and two-step regression were used to examine these assumptions. Our approach controlled for the health status of those people at the same administrative level of the hospital.ResultsOur study shows some interesting results. First, the reimbursement rate of NRCMS predicted a higher level of SRH among rural middle-aged and elderly, but that all of the indirect effect of it on SRH could be explained in total by satisfaction of local medical services utilization (ab = 0.0492). Second, the results further showed that the odds ratio of satisfaction from affordable, convenient, high-quality medical services is 2.402 times (p < 0.01) greater for those with higher reimbursement levels than for their counterparts with lower reimbursement. Third, the odds ratios of inpatient care visit, outpatient care visit, and physical examination among policyholders of NRCMS are also 1.116, 1.628, and 1.08 times greater, respectively, than their counterparts who are not satisfied with these local medical services.ConclusionsOur results concluded that generous insurance reimbursement can reduce the price of healthcare and costs of utilization that both had a dramatic effect on SRH among middle-aged and elderly when their demand for medical treatment is incurred. The government should focus on the healthcare cost, utilization, and health benefit calculations of health insurance policy options at the stage of rapid aging in rural China.

Water Supply and Management System of Urban City: Santiago City Case

Goal 6 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations 2030 Agenda and SDGs is a national call for Clean Water and Sanitation. For society's demographic, social, and economic development, reliable and outstanding water quality and long-term water supply services are deemed essential. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Santiago City's Local Water Utility (LWU) system in terms of water supply and wastewater management. The performance evaluation was based on the following domains – (a) sustainability of water supply; (b) consumers satisfaction; and (c) waste management practices; including compliance of the local government unit and service units by water security and management. The International Water Association's assessment framework and indicators were employed (IWA). The method used to collect information and/or data for this study, key informant interviews, and field surveys were conducted, with a total of 395 respondents drawn from 12 active barangays using stratified random sampling. The results showed that in terms of water sustainability for the next 30-year considering the future population and based on the present demand as of 2019, water demand will skyrocket with an equivalent percent increase of 8.97%, 17.95%, and 28.20% for 2030, 2040, and 2050 respectively. The result analysis does not include the agricultural demands or groundwater withdrawal for agricultural purposes and individual domestic wells within the City of Santiago. Overall acceptability on water quality was acceptable with a rating of 52% wherein 66%, 67%, 65% and 56% acceptability ratings were attributed to quality, taste, odor, color, and pressure, respectively. The Santiago water district has two water treatment facilities located within the city. For the water waste disposal, it is observed that there is direct disposal of waste to water bodies specifically to farms and drainage. The city of Santiago along with SANWAD has implemented ordinances and enabling laws on water/wastewater management for sustainable water resources utilization. Furthermore, on the issue of sustainability, it is highly recommended to develop alternative water resources that could increase water distribution efficiency, eliminate or lessen illegal tapping/ connection, increase coverage area, and maintain water quality valuation as a sustainable approach to sufficiently and dependably supply water demand for future generations.

Facilitating vehicle-integrated photovoltaics by considering the radius of curvature of the roof surface for solar cell coverage

By mounting photovoltaics (PV) on the roof of an electric vehicle (EV), solar energy can be used to supply a considerable portion of the energy demand of the EV. The roof is the best place for PV installation on the vehicle body because doors and engine hood have less yearly-average sunlight available and more stringent mechanical requirements. The roof of a modern passenger vehicle such as a sedan is not flat, and parts with high curvature or a significant slope do not need to be covered. However, there are no design rules available for mounting PV on a vehicle roof, such as determining the coverage ratio. In this study, the distributions of roof shapes and sizes were obtained from trace drawings of various commercially available passenger vehicles. This was then used to calculate the distributions of the mechanical (i.e., local curvature) and optical (i.e., local solar utilization rate) properties. Based on the results, general guidelines were developed, including a potential coverage ratio of 96% for a hemispherical roof with a radius of curvature of 1 m. These guidelines have already been successfully demonstrated and prototyped with a small module.

Optimizing Task Location Privacy in Mobile Crowdsensing Systems

The location information for tasks may expose sensitive information, which impedes the practical use of mobile crowdsensing in the industrial Internet. In this article, to our knowledge, we are the first to discuss the privacy protection of task locations and propose a codebook-based task allocation mechanism to protect it. Considering the cost of system utility caused by privacy protection technology, the tradeoff between local privacy and system utility is formalized a multiobjective optimization problem. The optimal solution is theoretically derived, and the optimal task allocation scheme is obtained. In addition, the selected allocation codebook (SAC) method is introduced to solve the problem of high computational resource consumption in the task allocation process and protect the task location privacy to some extent. The experimental results show that the SAC method sacrifices system utility but improves the privacy protection for task locations by 60% on average.

Heuristic Greedy Scheduling of Electric Vehicles in Vehicle-to-Grid Microgrid Owned Aggregators.

In on-grid microgrids, electric vehicles (EVs) have to be efficiently scheduled for cost-effective electricity consumption and network operation. The stochastic nature of the involved parameters along with their large number and correlations make such scheduling a challenging task. This paper aims at identifying pertinent innovative solutions for reducing the relevant total costs of the on-grid EVs within hybrid microgrids. To optimally scale the EVs, a heuristic greedy approach is considered. Unlike most existing scheduling methodologies in the literature, the proposed greedy scheduler is model-free, training-free, and yet efficient. The proposed approach considers different factors such as the electricity price, on-grid EVs state of arrival and departure, and the total revenue to meet the load demands. The greedy-based approach behaves satisfactorily in terms of fulfilling its objective for the hybrid microgrid system, which is established of photovoltaic, wind turbine, and a local utility grid. Meanwhile, the on-grid EVs are being utilized as an energy storage exchange location. A real time hardware-in-the-loop experimentation is comprehensively conducted to maximize the earned profit. Through different uncertainty scenarios, the ability of the proposed greedy approach to obtain a global optimal solution is assessed. A data simulator was developed for the purposes of generating evaluation datasets, which captures uncertainties in the behaviors of the system’s parameters. The greedy-based strategy is considered applicable, scalable, and efficient in terms of total operating expenditures. Furthermore, as EVs penetration became more versatile, total expenses decreased significantly. Using simulated data of an effective operational duration of 500 years, the proposed approach succeeded in cutting down the energy consumption costs by about 50–85%, beating existing state-of-the-arts results. The proposed approach is proved to be tolerant to the large amounts of uncertainties that are involved in the system’s operational data.

Patchwork Constructions of Multiattribute Utility Functions

The construction of a representative multiattribute utility function is important in decision analysis. Existing methods focus mainly on constructions of utility functions on the whole domain of attributes. In some cases, decision makers may provide partial information on their local utility assessments. Therefore, it is a challenging and interesting task to construct utility functions that are compatible with local assessments provided by decision makers. This paper proposes the patchwork construction to accomplish this task. We first define a special local preference structure, the local utility independence and then discuss the patchwork construction that unifies local utility independence on different local domains. The utility function elicited by the patchwork approach under the local utility independence condition is named as the local-utility-independent utility function. Three types of local-utility-independent utility functions on three typical partitions are proposed. These local-utility-independent utility functions have concise and tractable functional forms and indicate intuitive preference structures while matching prior known local utility assessments. Furthermore, the preference structures implied by these three types of local-utility-independent utility functions have a close relationship with the n-switch independence. Sufficient and necessary conditions guaranteeing these local-utility-independent utility functions to indicate n-switch independence are provided, respectively. All three types of local-utility-independent utility functions also have an important application in the approximations of arbitrary utility functions when only some local assessments are provided. As approximations, they are robust and have high accuracy.

Technical efficiency measurement of urban industrial water: a case study of cities in China

PurposeWith the rapid economic growth and urbanization development, regional environmental problems have attracted increasing attention. The study on analyzing cities’ capacity on resource utilization and environmental protection is practically significant because of the industrial agglomeration in an urban area. This study aims to measure environmental efficiency of urban industrial water utilization by comparing input, output and undesirable outputs variables of cities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper combines data envelopment analysis basic approach with regression to discover the environmental efficiency score of cities and their influence factors. A set of slack-based measure (SBM) model is constructed for calculating the environmental efficiency score by considering both desirable and unendurable outputs.FindingsThis paper analyzes the industrial water utilization efficiency for China from the city level by evaluating the performance for up to 200 mainland Chinese cities during 2012–2016 under SBM model. Then, 2C Tobit regression is used to measure the determining factors of industrial water utilization efficiency from the angle of natural, social, municipal and industrial structure factors. The empirical study results show huge room for improvement in industrial water utilization in China, while the average citizen efficiency scores maintain a level of about 0.5.Originality/valueSignificant differences exist in the regional efficiency in different cities in China. Per capita GDP, a total length of drainage pipe and whether the area is coastal or not have significant positive impacts on the water utilization efficiency, while the proportion of secondary industry to GDP has a significant negative influence. Specific recommendations are proposed based on the local industrial water utilization efficiency scores, such as improving urban infrastructure and adopting a more flexible water pricing system.

Numerical demonstration of a transactive energy trading model for microgrids

Bidirectional power flow is becoming increasingly commonplace in modern distribution systems with the integration Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) and Energy Storage Systems (ESSs). This has facilitated in bringing generation closer to end-consumers, thus leading to the emergence and rapid growth of microgrids. Additionally, due to the technological revolution in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), innovative business models have developed where willing and able participants of the power system can participate in the electricity market. In line with this evolution of both the electric power system and its participants, Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) is emerging as an increasingly prominent business model to address electrical grid challenges economically. EaaS encourages electricity grid customers to play a more active role and participate in different electricity markets. This paper introduces and simulates a variant of a Transactive Energy (TE) trading algorithm for microgrids. The paper describes the model in brief how multiple microgrids assets can trade electricity to ensure more efficient and economical local resource utilization. The main motivations of this research paper is to validate and test the suitability of the TE trading algorithm for a variety of conditions. The coordinated TE trading model can optimize expansion and investment planning especially at the distribution level.

Continuously updated forecasting of SARS-CoV-2 in a regional health system.

To build a model of local hospital utilization resulting from SARS-CoV-2 and to continuously update it with new data. Retrospective analysis of real performance resulting from a model deployed in a major regional health system. Using hospitalization data from the Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States integrated care system during the period from March 10, 2020, through December 31, 2020, and a custom-developed genetic particle filtering algorithm, we modeled the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the mid-Atlantic region. This model produced weekly forecasts of COVID-19-related hospital admissions, which we then compared with actual hospital admissions over the sameperiod. We found that the model was able to accurately capture the data-generating process (weekly mean absolute percentage error, 10.0%-48.8%; Anderson-Darling P value of .97 when comparing percentiles of observed admissions with the uniform distribution) once the effects of social distancing could be accurately measured in mid-April. We also found that our estimates of key parameters, including the reproductive rate, were consistent with consensus literature estimates. The genetic particle filtering algorithm that we have proposed is effective at modeling hospitalizations due to SARS-CoV-2. The methods used by our model can be reproduced by any major health care system for the purposes of resource planning, staffing, and population care management to create an effective forecasting regimen atscale.

Urban traffic light scheduling for pedestrian–vehicle mixed-flow networks using discrete sine–cosine algorithm and its variants

This study addresses the traffic light scheduling problem for pedestrian–vehicle mixed-flow networks. A macroscopic model, which strikes an appropriate balance between pedestrians’ needs and vehicle drivers’ needs, is employed to describe the traffic light scheduling problem in a scheduling framework. The objective of this problem is to minimize the total network-wise delay time of vehicles and pedestrians within a given finite-time window, which is crucial to avoid traffic congestion in urban road networks. To achieve this objective, the present study first uses a well-known optimization solver called GUROBI to obtain the optimal solution by converting the problem into mixed-integer linear programming. The obtained results indicate the computational inefficiency of the solver for large network sizes. To overcome this computational inefficiency, three novel metaheuristic methods based on the sine–cosine algorithm are proposed. These methods are denoted by discrete sine–cosine algorithm, discrete sine–cosine algorithm with local search operator, and discrete sine–cosine algorithm with local search operator and memory utilization inspired by harmony search. Each of these methods is developed hierarchically by taking the advantages of previously developed method(s) in terms of a better search process to provide more accurate solutions and a better convergence rate. To validate all these proposed metaheuristics, extensive computational experiments are carried out using the real traffic infrastructure of Singapore. Moreover, various performance measures such as statistical optimization results, relative percentage deviation, computational time, statistical analysis, and convergence behavior analysis have been employed to evaluate the performance of algorithms. The comparison of the proposed SCA variants is done with GUROBI solver and other metaheuristics namely, harmony search, firefly algorithm, bat algorithm, artificial bee colony, genetic algorithm, salp swarm algorithm, and harris hawks optimization. Overall comparison analysis concludes that the proposed methods are very efficient to solve the traffic light scheduling problem for pedestrian–vehicle mixed-flow networks with different network sizes and prediction time horizons.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Customer Loyalty: Exploring the Roles of Customer Satisfaction and Brand Image of Company

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an important part of organisations from various industries. Besides producing quality goods and services, and carrying out just the usual roles, companies are also now expected to be more sociably responsible. Recently, the electricity provider in Malaysia has come under spotlight due to looming regulatory changes. Contestable market or liberalisation in the local utility sector is vital as it provides customers alternate solutions with additional choices and flexibility when buying electricity. However, with the news of possible liberalisation that will occur, it is necessary for the company to know if customers will stay loyal when new competitors arrive. The aim paper is to study how CSR impact customer loyalty in electricity company. This cross-sectional study is conducted through a self-administered questionnaire. The partial least squares–structural equation model is also used to examine how the company brand image and satisfaction mediates customer responses to CSR dimensions. The research has proven that CSR has significant impact on customer loyalty. In this regard, the findings will encourage electricity industry players to consider CSR as part of their business strategy to improve their customer satisfaction and brand image respectively towards sustainable business development.

Plan writing as a policy tool: instrumental, conceptual, and tactical uses of water management plans in California

Numerous environmental regulations require organizations to codify prospective activities in a written plan. However, evidence suggests that many plans are never implemented, raising questions about why public agencies continually require plans, whether mandating plans allows agencies to meet their policy aims, and what additional purposes plans serve. Adopting concepts from literature on research utilization, we develop a plan use typology, defining instrumental use as occurring when the requirement to write a plan directly addresses a stated policy problem, conceptual use as occurring when the requirement to write a plan indirectly addresses a policy problem by raising awareness of an issue or improving governance capacity, and tactical use as occurring when the requirement to write a plan serves a political or symbolic purpose unrelated to solving the policy problem. We then apply the typology to four California statutes that require local and regional utilities to write water management plans. We first assess the statutes to identify the goals underlying the requirement to write a plan and assess what plan uses are emphasized in guidance documents and the written plans themselves. Lastly, we interview the plan writing organizations to capture their perspectives on the value and limitations of these plans. We find that legislators turn to plans to support instrumental and conceptual goals but that the plans themselves and the way they are used by authoring agencies primarily serve conceptual and tactical uses, suggesting a disconnect between the policy goals underlying plans and their actual use.

Integrated capacity configuration and control optimization of off-grid multiple energy system for transient performance improvement

The off-grid multiple energy system offers a promising way for energy supply due to its advantages of independency, multi energy co-generation, high efficiency and local utilization of renewable energy. A key issue of the off-grid multiple energy system is the operating performance during the dynamic transition because it is isolated from the utility grid. The conventional steady-state configuration methods ignore the significant impact of configuration scheme on the transient performance of the multiple energy system, which can easily lead to poor dynamic performance, thus are not suited for the off-grid multiple energy system with high penetration of intermittent renewable energy. It is necessary to consider the closed-loop dynamic control behavior of the system early in the configuration stage. To this end, this paper proposes a novel integrated capacity configuration and control optimization method of the multiple energy system, in which both the economic costs and closed-loop dynamic performance are fully considered. The multi-parametric programming is applied to construct a design-perceptive predictive tracking controller to bridge the gap between configuration and dynamic operation of the system. Case study on a typical off-grid combined heat and power multiple energy system shows that the proposed approach can reduce the dynamic thermal and electrical deviations of the multiple energy system by 84.45% and 28.11% respectively at the expense of only 1.86% increase of total economic costs. In-depth validations are carried out under extreme weather conditions and low carbon requirements, which further demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed approach.