A Machine Learning Model Ensemble for Mixed Power Load Forecasting across Multiple Time Horizons.

The increasing penetration of renewable energy sources tends to redirect the power systems community's interest from the traditional power grid model towards the smart grid framework. During this transition, load forecasting for various time horizons constitutes an essential electric utility task in network planning, operation, and management. This paper presents a novel mixed power-load forecasting scheme for multiple prediction horizons ranging from 15 min to 24 h ahead. The proposed approach makes use of a pool of models trained by several machine-learning methods with different characteristics, namely neural networks, linear regression, support vector regression, random forests, and sparse regression. The final prediction values are calculated using an online decision mechanism based on weighting the individual models according to their past performance. The proposed scheme is evaluated on real electrical load data sensed from a high voltage/medium voltage substation and is shown to be highly effective, as it results in R2 coefficient values ranging from 0.99 to 0.79 for prediction horizons ranging from 15 min to 24 h ahead, respectively. The method is compared to several state-of-the-art machine-learning approaches, as well as a different ensemble method, producing highly competitive results in terms of prediction accuracy.

Science and Orthodox Christianity: An Overview.

This essay offers an overview of the history of the relations between science and Eastern Christianity based on Greek-language sources. The civilizations concerned are the Byzantine Empire, the Christian Orthodox communities of the Ottoman Empire, and modern Greece, as a case study of a national state. Beginning with the Greek Church Fathers, the essay investigates the ideas of theologians and scholars on nature. Neoplatonism, the theological debates of Iconoclasm and Hesychasm, the proposed union of the Eastern and Western Churches, and the complex relations with the Hellenic past all had notable impacts on the conception of science held by the Byzantine Orthodox. From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, the Christian Orthodox world did not actively participate in the making of the new science that was developing in modern Europe. It had to deal with the assimilation of scientific ideas produced by Western Christianity, and its main concern was the "legitimacy" of knowledge that did not originate directly from its own spiritual tradition. Finally, with regard to the Greek state, beyond the specific points of contact between the sciences and Orthodox Christianity­pertaining, for example, to materialism, evolution, and the calendar­the essay presents the constant background engagement with religion visible in most public pronouncements of scientists and intellectuals.