A Comparative Analysis of Peak Load Shaving Strategies for Isolated Microgrid Using Actual Data

Peak load reduction is one of the most essential obligations and cost-effective tasks for electrical energy consumers. An isolated microgrid (IMG) system is an independent limited capacity power system where the peak shaving application can perform a vital role in the economic operation. This paper presents a comparative analysis of a categorical variable decision tree algorithm (CVDTA) with the most common peak shaving technique, namely, the general capacity addition technique, to evaluate the peak shaving performance for an IMG system. The CVDTA algorithm deals with the hybrid photovoltaic (PV)—battery energy storage system (BESS) to provide the peak shaving service where the capacity addition technique uses a peaking generator to minimize the peak demand. An actual IMG system model is developed in MATLAB/Simulink software to analyze the peak shaving performance. The model consists of four major components such as, PV, BESS, variable load, and gas turbine generator (GTG) dispatch models for the proposed algorithm, where the BESS and PV models are not applicable for the capacity addition technique. Actual variable load data and PV generation data are considered to conduct the simulation case studies which are collected from a real IMG system. The simulation result exhibits the effectiveness of the CVDTA algorithm which can minimize the peak demand better than the capacity addition technique. By ensuring the peak shaving operation and handling the economic generation dispatch, the CVDTA algorithm can ensure more energy savings, fewer system losses, less operation and maintenance (O&M) cost, etc., where the general capacity addition technique is limited.

Psychological Literacy

Until 2010, the phrase “psychological literacy” (PL) was used sparsely and in a variety of ways, including to refer to (a) a student’s grasp of the major concepts of the different topic areas of psychology, (b) a call to action for psychologists to contribute to increased psychological knowledge and skills in the population, or (c) a nation’s general capacity to apply psychological principles in everyday life. In 2010, PL was defined in terms of the intended outcome of undergraduate (UG) psychology education, delineating nine capabilities, broadly categorized as discipline knowledge and its application, critical thinking and research skills, and the valuing of ethical behavior and of diversity. A call to action to educate “psychologically literate citizens” was also made. Several studies have evaluated the impact of educational interventions in relation to those capabilities. A more recent and general conceptualization of PL appears to revert to some of the earlier understandings, being defined as the capacity to use psychology to achieve personal, professional, and societal goals. The broad aim of this bibliography is to identify existing and topical themes from the literature on PL. A significant proportion of the literature has a focus on psychology education. Nevertheless, there is some diversity in the themes identified. Note that there are many papers that make mention “in passing” of the modern conceptualization of PL. Although these are indicative of the general acceptance of the concept, these were deemed to be less central to the reader’s understanding of this topic. How were the themes identified? A literature search was conducted with standard databases, then additional literature was independently identified (e.g., through the examination of reference listings). In terms of what was selected for consideration, specific criteria were applied (e.g., English language only, no conference abstracts). During this process, themes emerged, and a coauthor consensus was iteratively reached regarding (a) the major existing and topical themes and their relevance, and (b) exemplars for each. Each of the sections covers one of the themes identified, except where sections are organized by subthemes.

Community capacity building for culturally sensitive prevention and control of NCDs

In Southeast Asia, it is common practice to have community-based interventions targeting health promotion, prevention and management of diseases. Often interventions developed by WHO or health programmes in the regions are copied. From literature it is known that community-based interventions are more effective when tailored to the local language, including the lingo, and custom traditions and adapted to preferences, needs, values, interests, religion, and other sociocultural specific aspects. Cultural and contextual adaptation of an intervention is difficult and dynamic, and to date there is no practical and scientific base how to do this. In this presentation the developing of contextual and culturally sensitive and responsive capacity building materials for health promotion and screening by community volunteers and community groups will be elaborated by the following topics: Development of general capacity building methods and curricula, taking into account local training needs of community workers Tools for pre-test post-test of training to assess the level of understanding by participants Tools for measuring contextual and cultural sensitivity of training modules and training activities Tools for adjustment of training and materials to context and culture, building on the findings in the previous tools The presentation will show the application of these tools and the final outcome when applying them in practice.

The Role of Time Perspective in the General Tendency to Disengage and Reengage from Problematic Goal Striving

Both time and goals are ubiquitous in our everyday lives. The main aim of the present set of studies was to corroborate if time perspective, as conceptualized by Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, is related to goal disengagement and reengagement during problematic goal striving. Over three studies, with more than 600 participants varying in age and cultural background, it was found that future time perspective is related to goal disengagement from a problematic goal striving. A pilot study with 103 university students showed that the future positive scale was negatively related to the general capacity to disengage. In a second study with 356 high-school students, it was shown that the future positive, past positive and present hedonistic scales were negatively correlated to goal disengagement, while the present fatalistic and future negative scales were positively correlated to goal disengagement. However, when accounting for the Big-five, only the future negative and (possibly) present hedonistic scales remained statistically significant predictors of the capacity to disengage from a goal. In the third study, the role of the future time perspective was replicated among 169 people suffering from chronic pain disease. It was shown that the future time perspective (in its general form) negatively predicted the general capacity to disengage. Moreover, focusing on more process-oriented aspects, this further predicted the action crisis during goal pursuit. This set of studies not only provides novel findings but also encourages further investigation of the time perspective in goal striving.

Assessing cross-sector stakeholder readiness to advance and sustain statewide behavioral integration beyond a State Innovation Model (SIM) initiative

Integrated care is recognized as a promising approach to comprehensive health care and reductions in health care costs. However, the integration of behavioral health and primary care is complex and often difficult to implement. Successful and sustainable integration efforts require coordination and alignment both within health care organizations and across multiple sectors. Furthermore, implementation progress and outcomes are shaped by the readiness of stakeholders to work together toward integrated care. In the context of a Colorado State Innovation Model (SIM) effort, we examined stakeholder readiness to advance and sustain partnerships for behavioral health integration beyond the period of grant funding. Partnership readiness was assessed using the Readiness for Cross-sector Partnerships Questionnaire (RCP) in spring 2019. Participants from 67 organizations represented seven sectors: government, health care, academic, practice transformation, advocacy, payer, and other. RCP analyses indicated a moderate level of readiness among Colorado stakeholders for partnering to continue the work of behavioral health integration initiated by SIM. Stakeholders indicated their highest readiness levels for general capacity and lowest for innovation-specific capacity. Five thematic categories emerged from the open-ended questions pertaining to partnership experiences: (a) collaboration and relationships, (b) capacity and leadership, (c) measurement and outcomes, (d) financing integrated care, and (e) sustainability of the cross-sector partnership. Partnering across sectors to advance integrated behavioral health and create more equitable access to services is inherently complex and nonlinear in nature. The RCP usefully identifies opportunities to strengthen the sustainability of integrated care efforts.

The human brain’s intrinsic network architecture is organized to represent diverse cognitive task information

A set of distributed cognitive control networks are known to contribute to diverse cognitive demands, yet it is unclear how these networks gain this domain-general capacity. We hypothesized that this capacity is largely due to the particular organization of the human brain’s intrinsic network architecture. Specifically, we tested the possibility that each brain region’s domain generality is reflected in its level of global (hub-like) intrinsic connectivity, as well as its particular global connectivity topography. Consistent with prior work, we found that cognitive control networks exhibited domain generality, as they represented diverse task context information covering sensory, motor response, and logic rule domains. Supporting our hypothesis, we found that the level of global intrinsic connectivity (as estimated with task-free fMRI) was correlated with domain generality during tasks. Further, using a novel information fingerprint mapping approach, we found that each brain region’s unique cognitive rule response profile could be predicted based on its unique intrinsic connectivity pattern. Together these results suggest that the human brain’s intrinsic network architecture supports its ability to represent diverse cognitive task information, largely via the placement of cognitive control networks within the brain’s global network organization.

School Coordinators’ Perceptions of Organizational Readiness Is Associated with Implementation Fidelity in a Smoking Prevention Program: Findings from the X:IT II Study

School organizational readiness to implement interventions may play an important role for the actual obtained implementation level, and knowledge about organizational readiness prior to intervention start can help pinpoint how to optimize support to the schools. In this study, we applied a novel heuristic, R = MC2 to assess school organizational readiness prior to implementation of a multicomponent smoking prevention program. Furthermore, we examined the association to actual implementation after the first year of study. We used questionnaire data from school coordinators at 40 schools in Denmark who had accepted to implement the multi-component smoking prevention intervention—X:IT II—in the school year 2017–2018 including three main components: (1) Rules on smoke-free school time, (2) A smoke-free curriculum, and (3) Parental involvement. On behalf of the school, a school coordinator answered a baseline questionnaire about the organizational readiness and a follow-up questionnaire about implementation of the three components after first year of study. Readiness was measured by summing aspects of motivation (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, and priority), general capacity (culture, climate, and staff capacity), and innovation-specific capacity (knowledge, skills, and abilities). Based on school coordinators’ perceptions, almost all schools had good general capacity while the other two areas of readiness varied across schools; overall, 56.8% of schools (N = 25) had good motivation for implementing the X:IT II intervention and 61.3% (N = 27) had high innovation-specific capacity. Half of the schools had high overall readiness defined as high motivation and high innovation-specific capacity. Schools with high overall readiness implemented the rules on smoke-free school time, smoke-free curriculum, and parental involvement to a higher degree than schools with low overall readiness. All participating schools possessed sufficient levels of general capacity, e.g., a well-functioning organizational culture and sufficient staff capacity. High levels of motivation and innovation-specific capacity were positively associated with the schools’ actual implementation of the main intervention components. This way of conceptualizing and measuring organizational readiness may be useful in future studies, i.e., in studies where enhancing readiness is a main objective.

Cognitive biases in marketing communication: Influence of anchoring and message framing on consumers' perception and willingness to purchase

While in the theory of rational decision making, it is considered that people's choices remain consistent and predictable even in cases when same information is presented in different ways, in real situations consumers' decisions are affected by their personal characteristics, habits, norms and past experience, as well as limitations of human cognitive mechanisms. In general, heuristics can be perceived as fast cognitive processes in decision making which can sometimes lead to the occurrence of biases which shape the final decision. In marketing communication, the general capacity of people to make cognitive errors encourage the application of certain principles in formulation of messages in order to instigate recipients to make predictable cognitive errors when making decisions. The subject of the research is to determine how the encouragement of cognitive biase sin marketing communication can affect decisions of messages recipients. The research included the application of two research methods observation and experimental method. In as many as 80% of the observed advertisements, the encouragement of at least one cognitive bias was registered. In both experimental situations, it was shown that the willingness to pay for a product depends on the way the promotional message is formulated.

From Model to Reality: The Role of Implementation Readiness

Arnold and Gagnon’s timely work on the 4-H Thriving Model is an excellent example of the application of developmental science in youth development practice. In their article, the authors describe how 4-H, an established youth development organization, updated the theory of change. Designing an actionable theory of change based on science is indeed a commendable effort for any youth-serving organization. However, the work does not stop there. The diverse 4-H system now has the ultimate challenge of adopting and implementing the principles presented in their theory of change. In this commentary, I discuss the often-overlooked components of implementation readiness: motivation, general capacity, and content-specific knowledge (R=MC2) in relation to the 4-H Thriving Model. When staff are ready, they can succeed in aligning resources and coordinate professional learning for the adults, or implementers, to know and understand the theory of change and associated practices. Fostering learning and development to enact science-informed strategies, as Arnold and Gagnon have done in the 4-H Thriving Model, is critical to developing sound models of youth programming. However, to implement a model into practice, the real and human factors of implementation readiness are key to success.

People regulate each other’s emotion regulation

People often observe others struggling with and attempting to regulate their negative emotions. But, rather than always offering sympathy and help, observers sometimes criticize others for feeling upset, thereby making them suffer even more. Why would observers react to suffering others in this way? Across six studies, we show that observers’ use criticism to spur sufferers to regulate their negative emotions away on their own. Consistent with this goal, observers base their supportive or critical reactions on whether they think the sufferer is capable of controlling their negative emotion (i.e., of regulating it away). Observers rely on a variety of cues to determine whether a person has control over their suffering. First, observers rely on their own sense of how much control they have over their own emotions (Study 1). Second, they judge emotions that are miscalibrated to the situation as being more controllable than emotions that are well-calibrated (Studies 2-4). And third, they incorporate information about the sufferer’s general capacity to exert cognitive control over his or her emotions (Study 4). Judgments about others’ emotion control extend to real-life contexts: They predict self-reports of supportive and critical behaviors towards close others (Study 5) and they predict support for university policies aimed at reducing the prevalence of microaggressions (Study 6). Taken together, our findings suggest that people engage in emotion regulation regulation, in which they expect and enforce others to regulate their own emotions if they can, and track features of the person or situation that enable successful emotion regulation.