[en] Objective: To estimate dual-source CT effective doses under four different examination protocols. Methods: After putting TLDs in the Alderson Radiation Therapy Phantom, we scanned the phantom under two different examination protocols. Then effective doses were calculated with the acquired absorbed doses of organs and tissues. Tissue weighting factors recommended by the ICRP were adopted in the calculation. Effective doses were also calculated using the AAPM recommended method by which the DLP was multiplied by the K factor. Results: Effective doses under two different examination protocols were obtained. The effective doses were 3.66 and 2.98 mSv respectively when phantom were used. The effective doses were 2. 81 and 1.55 mSv respectively calculated using the K value recommended by AAPM and were all lower than that obtained using phantom. Conclusion: Under the head scan mode, the absorbed dose of crystalline lens is high. Effective doses calculated using the method recommended by AAPM were lower than those using the Alderson Radiation Therapy Phantom. (authors)

[en] Objective: To understand radioactivity level of gross alpha and gross beta in drinking water (The source water and the tap water) in Changzhou city from 2014 to 2016, to provide reference for drinking water risk monitoring in Changzhou area. Methods: Water samples were tested in accordance with the Chinese Standard GB/T 5750.13-2006 'Standard examination methods for drinking water radioactivity index'. The test results were prepared following the Chinese Standard GB5749-2006 'Standards for drinking water quality' and WHO 'Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality'. Results: From 2014 to 2016, the gross alpha concentration ranges between 0.011 to 0.087 Bq/L for the source water and 0.010∼0.087 Bq/L for the tap water. The gross beta concentration ranges were 0.071∼0.250 Bq/L for the source water and 0.051∼0.170 Bq/L for the tap water, The radioactivity level of gross alpha and gross beta has no statistically significant differences between the source water and the tap water. In addition, the average annual effective dose range of the five urban residents in Changzhou during wet season and dry season was 0.012∼0.027 mSv. Conclusion: The radioactivity level of gross alpha and gross beta in drinking water in Changzhou city from 2014 to 2016 were all below the guideline of radioactivity index specified in GB 5749-2006 and WHO 'Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality', the average annual effective doses of the five areas under the administration of Changzhou were also below WHO reference level (annual effective dose limit: 0.1 mSV/a). (authors)

[en] Highlights: • Energy storage use rights designed to share the energy storage. • An integrated bidding, clearing and pricing method of energy storage use rights. • Conversion and linearization of the bilevel model. • Proof of the non-negative profit of each participant. Energy storage use right (ESUR) is a novel concept to make more people share the energy storage (ES) and give full play to its values. However, the integrated bidding, clearing and pricing method of ESURs is never reported nowadays. In this paper, we design some new ESURs, including the discrete power capacity right (DPCR) and the continuous energy capacity right (CECR), to meet the different needs of subscribers for sharing the ES. The ESUR trade is formulated as a bilevel problem, in which the upper-level problem represents the bidding strategies of subscribers, and the lower-level problem represents the market clearing. A pricing strategy is proposed to make the trading effective and fair by ensuring the optimalities of problems in both two levels. Using the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions and the binary expansion technique, the bilevel model is transferred into a linear problem to facilitate solving the model. In addition, it can be theoretically proved that the profit of each participant is non-negative. Numerical experiments are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Compared with the trading of DPCR, the participants’ overall profit is increased by 23.6%–145.91% owing to the additional consideration of the trading of CECR.

[en] To explore the biological effects of microwave combined with γ-rays on apoptosis, mitochondrion membrane potential (MMP), Ca²⁺ and Ca²⁺-Mg²⁺-ATPase in rat cultured gliacytes, primarily cultured gliacytes were randomly divided into the control group(C), the microwave group(M), the γ-rays group(I) and the combined group(IM). The M and IM groups were exposed to 4 mW/cm² microwave 2 h/d for 3 days. The I and IM groups were given 5 Gy ⁶⁰Co γ-rays on the forth day. Ca²⁺-Mg²⁺-ATPase was detected by kit. Apoptosis, MMP and Ca²⁺ were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). The results show that the ratio of apoptosis of the I and IM groups were significantly increased, and the contents of Ca²⁺ in the cytoplasm of M, I and IM group cells were all significantly higher meanwhile Ca²⁺-Mg²⁺-ATPase activity was lower than that of the control group;but MMP had no obvious changes in the four groups. Under the experimental conditions, the microwave radiation did not induce evident changes in MMP. However, the content of Ca²⁺ in the cytoplasm increased significantly and Ca²⁺-Mg²⁺-ATPase decreased obviously. No synergic effects were observed in the treatment with microwave before exposure to γ-rays. (authors)

[en] Highlights: • A time-space trip model was proposed to arrange the route of plug-in electric bus. • A rolling energy management strategy was introduced for the microgrid operators. • A single-leader and multiple-follower model was built to solve the proposed problem. Plug-in electric buses have great potential to enhance the profits of operators in multiple-microgrid systems via the use of vehicle-to-grid technology. In contrast to stationary energy storage units, a plug-in electric bus can move among different microgrids to provide not only passenger transportation service but also energy transportation service. In this paper, a single-leader and multiple-follower model based on the Stackelberg game method is proposed for the look-ahead dispatch of bus routes and power allocation in microgrids. First, a time-space trip model for a fleet of plug-in electric buses was established, and the total costs of the plug-in electric bus operator were optimized as a leader-level problem. Then a rolling energy management strategy was formulated as a follower-level problem to optimize the total costs of each microgrid operator and to deal with the prediction error of the distributed energy resources and loads. Next, the proposed bi-level optimization problem was transformed into a single-level mixed-integer linear programming problem. Finally, case studies were carried out on three real microgrids in China and on BYD-K9 plug-in electric buses. The simulation results indicated that the costs for a plug-in electric bus operator would decrease by 33.35% in the proposed bi-level model compared with the fixed charging model, and the costs for an isolated MG would decrease by 24.16% compared with the model regardless of the plug-in electric buses.