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The retinohypothalamic tract (RHT) relays photic information from the eyes to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Activation of this pathway by light plays a role in adjusting circadian timing via a glutamatergic pathway at night. Here we report a new signaling pathway by which the RHT may regulate circadian timing in the daytime as well. We used dual immunocytochemistry for pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide (PACAP) and the in vivo tracer cholera toxin subunit B and observed intense PACAP-immunoreactivity (PACAP-IR) in retinal afferents in the rat SCN as well as in the intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) of the thalamus. This PACAP-IR in the SCN as well as in the IGL was nearly lost after bilateral eye enucleation. PACAP afferents originated from small ganglion cells distributed throughout the retina. The phase of circadian rhythm measured as SCN neuronal activity in vitro was significantly advanced (3.5 +/- 0.4 hr) by application of 1 x 10(-6) M PACAP-38 during the subjective day [circadian time (CT)-6] but not at night (CT14 and CT19). The phase-shifting effect is channeled to the clock via a PACAP-R1 receptor, because mRNA from this receptor was demonstrated in the ventral SCN by in situ hybridization. Furthermore, vasoactive intestinal peptide was nearly 1000-fold less potent in stimulating a phase advance at CT6. The signaling mechanism was through a cAMP-dependent pathway, which could be blocked by a specific cAMP antagonist, Rp-cAMPS. Thus, in addition to its role in nocturnal regulation by glutamatergic neurotransmission, the RHT may adjust the biological clock by a PACAP/cAMP-dependent mechanism during the daytime.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are regarded as a complementary technology to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in the effort of searching for alternative energy solutions that are cost-effective and sustainable. The identification of suitable alternative anode materials is essential to close the gap in energy density between SIBs and LIBs. Solid-state alloying reactions that work beyond intercalation mechanism are able to provide a significant improvement in specific capacity. This review describes key advances in SIBs with a primary emphasis on alloy anodes. Recent information and results published in the literatures are stressed to provide an overview of their development in SIBs. With the discussion of some of the remaining challenges and possible solutions, the authors hope to sketch out the scope for future studies in this field. Volume expansion a) [%]Average voltage (vs Na + /Na) [V] SnNa 15 Sn 4 847 420 [17] ≈0.20 [18] Sb Na 3 Sb 660 390 [19] ≈0.60 [20] Si NaSi/Na 0.75 Si 954/725 114 [21] ≈0.50 [22] Ge NaGe 576 205 [23] ≈0.30 [24] P Na 3 P 2596 >300 [25] ≈0.40 [26] Bi Na 3 Bi 385 250 [11f ] ≈0.55 [27] a) The value of volume change may vary in different studies.www.afm-journal.de www.advancedsciencenews.com 1808745 (4 of 32)

Detailed information about a home's occupancy is necessary to implement many advanced energy-efficiency optimizations. However, monitoring occupancy directly is intrusive, typically requiring the deployment of multiple environmental sensors, e.g., motion, acoustic, CO2, etc. In this paper, we explore the potential for Non-Intrusive Occupancy Monitoring (NIOM) by using electricity data from smart meters to infer occupancy. We first observe that a home's pattern of electricity usage generally changes when occupants are present due to their interact with electrical loads. We empirically evaluate these interactions by monitoring ground truth occupancy in two homes, then correlating it with changes in statistical metrics of smart meter data, such as power's mean and variance, over short intervals. In particular, we use each metric's maximum value at night as a proxy for its maximum value in an unoccupied home, and then signal occupancy whenever the daytime value exceeds it. Our results highlight NIOM's potential and its challenges.

There is continuously increasing interest in research on multi-sensor data fusion technology. Because Dempster’s rule of combination can be problematic when dealing with conflicting data, there are numerous issues that make data fusion a challenging task, including the exponential explosion, Zadeh Paradox, and one-vote veto. These issues lead to a great difference between the fusion results and real results. This paper applies the idea of analyzing distance-based evidence conflicts, introduces the concept of vector space, and proposes a new cosine theorem-based method of identifying and expressing conflicting data. In addition, this paper proposes a new data fusion algorithm based on the degree of mutual support between beliefs, which is based on the Jousselme distance-based combination rule proposed by Deng et al. Simulation results demonstrate that the presented algorithm achieves great improvements in both the accuracy of identifying conflicting data and that of fusing conflicting data.

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Utilities are rapidly deploying smart meters that measure electricity usage in real-time. Unfortunately, smart meters indirectly leak sensitive information about a home's occupancy, which is easy to detect because it highly correlates with simple statistical metrics, such as power's mean, variance, and range. To prevent occupancy detection, we propose using the thermal energy storage of electric water heaters already present in many homes. In essence, our approach, which we call combined heat and privacy (CHPr), modulates a water heater's power usage to make it look like someone is always home. We design a CHPr-enabled water heater that regulates its energy usage to thwart a variety of occupancy detection attacks without violating its objective-to provide hot water on demand-and evaluate it in simulation using real data. Our results show that a standard 50-gal CHPr-enabled water heater prevents a wide range of state-of-the-art occupancy detection attacks.