Will electricity deregulation push inflation lower?

Deregulation of electricity generation will offer consumers many advantages, including dramatically lower energy costs. From a macroeconomic viewpoint, electricity purchases are interesting because they are a major component of consumers’ budgets (and thus of the CPI) and a large factor of production for many companies. This raises the possibility that electricity deregulation could create a substantial shock to the overall price trend, comparable to other recent energy shocks. The benefits to consumers and producers identified in this article strongly support legislative efforts to increase competition in one of the last strongholds of regulated profits.Electric utilities ; Inflation (Finance)

A numerical study of an inline oscillating cylinder in a free stream

Simulations of a cylinder undergoing externally controlled sinusoidal oscillations in the free stream direction have been performed. The frequency of oscillation was kept equal to the vortex shedding frequency from a fixed cylinder, while the amplitude of oscillation was varied, and the response of the flow measured. With varying amplitude, a rich series of dynamic responses was recorded. With increasing amplitude, these states included wakes similar to the Kármán vortex street, quasiperiodic oscillations interleaved with regions of synchronized periodicity (periodic on multiple oscillation cycles), a period-doubled state and chaotic oscillations. It is hypothesized that, for low to moderate amplitudes, the wake dynamics are controlled by vortex shedding at a global frequency, modified by the oscillation. This vortex shedding is frequency modulated by the driven oscillation and amplitude modulated by vortex interaction. Data are presented to support this hypothesis

Ingestion of Amniotic Fluid Enhances\ud Opiate Analgesia in Rats

Placenta ingestion has recently been shown to enhance opiate-mediated analgesia produced by morphine injection, footshock, or vaginal/cervical stimulation. The enhancement of the effect of endogenous opiates (especially analgesia) may be one of the principal benefits to mammalian mothers of placentophagia at delivery. During labor and delivery, however, mothers also ingest amniotic fluid (AF) which, unlike placenta, becomes available during, or even before expulsion of the infant. The present experiments were undertaken to determine (a) whether AF ingestion, too, enhances analgesia; if so, (b) whether the effect requires ingestion of, or merely exposure to, AF; (c) whether the effect can be produced by AF delivered directly to the stomach by tube; and (d) whether the enhancement, if it exists, can be blocked by administering an opiate antagonist. Nulliparous Long-Evans rats were tested for analgesia using tail-flick latency. We found that (a) rats that ingested AF after receiving a morphine injection showed significantly more analgesia than did rats that ingested a control substance;' (b) AF ingestion, alone, did not produce analgesia; (c) ingestion of AF, rather than just smelling and seeing it, was necessary to produce analgesia enhancement; (d) AF produced enhancement\ud when oropharyngeal factors were eliminated by delivering it through an orogastric tube; and (e) treatment of the rats with naltrexone blocked the enhancement of morphine-induced analgesia that results from AF ingestion

Dose-Dependent Enhancement of Morphine-Induced Analgesia\ud by Ingestion of Amniotic Fluid and Placenta

Ingestion of amniotic fluid and placenta by rats has been shown to enhance opioid-mediated analgesia. The present studies were designed to examine the effect of several doses and volumes of placenta and amniotic fluid on tail-flick latency in rats treated with 3 mg/kg morphine. The optimal dose of amniotic fluid was found to be 0.25 ml, although 0.50 and 1.0 ml also produced significant enhancement. Doses of 0.125 and 2 ml of amniotic fluid were ineffective, as was a dose of 0.25 ml diluted to 2 ml with saline. The optimal dose of placenta was found to be 1 placenta, although the resulting enhancement was not significantly greater than that produced by 0.25, 0.50, 2.0 or 4.0 placentas. Doses smaller than 0.25 placenta or larger than 4.0 placentas were ineffective. The most effective doses of amniotic fluid and placenta correspond to the amounts delivered with each pup during parturition

Wake states and frequency selection of a streamwise oscillating cylinder

This paper presents the results of an in-depth study of the flow past a streamwise oscillating cylinder, examining the impact of varying the amplitude and frequency of the oscillation, and the Reynolds number of the incoming flow. These findings are presented in a framework that shows that the relationship between the frequency of vortex shedding fs and the amplitude of oscillation A* is governed by two primary factors: the first is a reduction of fs proportional to a series in A*2 over a wide range of driving frequencies and Reynolds numbers; the second is nonlinear synchronization when this adjusted fs is in the vicinity of N = (1 - fs/fd)-1, where N is an integer. Typically, the influence of higher-order terms is small, and truncation to the first term of the series (A*2) well represents the overall trend of vortex shedding frequency as a function of amplitude. However, discontinuous steps are overlaid on this trend due to the nonlinear synchronization. When fs is normalized by the Strouhal frequency fSt (the frequency of vortex shedding from an unperturbed cylinder), the rate at which fs/fSt decreases with amplitude, at least for fd/fSt = 1, shows a linear dependence on the Reynolds number. For a fixed Re = 175, the truncated series shows that the rate of decrease of fs/fSt with amplitude varies as (2 - fd/fSt)-1/2 for 1 < or egal fd/fSt < or egal 2, but is essentially independent of fd/fSt for fd/fSt < 1. These trends of the rate of decrease of fs with respect to amplitude are also used to predict the amplitudes of oscillation around which synchronization occurs. These predicted amplitudes are shown to fall in regions of the parameter space where synchronized modes occur. Further, for the case of varying fd/fSt, a very reasonable prediction of the amplitude of oscillation required for the onset of synchronization to the mode where fs = 0.5fd is given. In a similar manner, amplitudes at which fs = 0 are calculated, predicting where the natural vortex shedding is completely supplanted by the forcing. These amplitudes are found to coincide approximately with those at which the onset of a symmetric vortex shedding mode is observed. This result is interpreted as meaning that the symmetric shedding mode occurs when the dynamics crosses over from being dominated by the vortex shedding to being dominated by the forcing

Flow over a cylinder subjected to combined translational and rotational oscillations

The experimental research reported here employs particle image velocimetry to extend the study of Nazarinia et al. (2009a), recording detailed vorticity fields in the near-wake of a circular cylinder undergoing combined translational and rotational oscillatory motions. The focus of the present study is to examine the effect of the ratio between the cross-stream translational and rotational velocities and frequencies on the synchronization of the near- wake structures for multiple phase differences between the two motions. The frequencies are fixed close to that of the natural frequency of vortex shedding. The results are presented for a fixed amplitude of rotational oscillation of 1 rad and a range of ratios between the translational and rotational velocities ðVRÞ 1⁄4 1⁄20:25,0:5,1:0,1:

Modification of three-dimensional transition in the wake of a rotationally oscillating cylinder

A study of the flow past an oscillatory rotating cylinder has been conducted, where the frequency of oscillation has been matched to the natural frequency of the vortex street generated in the wake of a stationary cylinder, at Reynolds number 300. The focus is on the wake transition to three-dimensional flow and, in particular, the changes induced in this transition by the addition of the oscillatory rotation. Using Floquet stability analysis, it is found that the fine-scale three-dimensional mode that typically dominates the wake at a Reynolds number beyond that at the second transition to three-dimensional flow (referred to as mode B) is suppressed for amplitudes of rotation beyond a critical amplitude, in agreement with past studies. However, the rotation does not suppress the development of three-dimensionality completely, as other modes are discovered that would lead to three-dimensional flow. In particular, the longer-wavelength mode that leads the three-dimensional transition in the wake of a stationary cylinder (referred to as mode A) is left essentially unaffected at low amplitudes of rotation. At higher amplitudes of oscillation, mode A is also suppressed as the two-dimensional near wake changes in character from a single- to a double- row wake; however, another mode is predicted to render the flow three-dimensional, dubbed mode D (for double row). This mode has the same spatio-temporal symmetries as mode A

Amniotic-Fluid Ingestion Enhances the Central\ud Analgesic Effect of Morphine

Amniotic fluid and placenta contain a substance (POEF) that when ingested enhances opioid-mediated analgesia produced by several agents (morphine injection, vaginal/cervical stimulation, late pregnancy, footshock), but not that produced by aspirin injection. The present series of experiments employed quaternary naltrexone, an opioid antagonist that does not readily cross the blood-brain barrier, in conjunction with either peripheral or central administration of morphine, to determine whether amniotic-fluid ingestion (and therefore POEF ingestion) enhances opioid-mediated analgesia by affecting the central and/or peripheral actions of morphine. The results suggest that POEF affects only the central analgesic effects of morphine

Harnessing Electrical Power from Vortex-Induced Vibration of a Circular Cylinder

The generation of electrical power from Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV) of a cylinder is investigated numerically. The cylinder is free to oscillate in the direction transverse to the incoming flow. The cylinder is attached to a magnet that can move along the axis of a coil made from conducting wire. The magnet and the coil together constitute a basic electrical generator. When the cylinder undergoes VIV, the motion of the magnet creates a voltage across the coil, which is connected to a resistive load. By Lenz's law, induced current in the coil applies a retarding force to the magnet. Effectively, the electrical generator applies a damping force on the cylinder with a spatially varying damping coefficient. For the initial investigation reported here, the Reynolds number is restricted to Re < 200, so that the flow is laminar and two-dimensional (2D). The incompressible 2D Navier-Stokes equations are solved using an extensively validated spectral-element based solver. The effects of the electromagnetic (EM) damping constant xi_m, coil dimensions (radius a, length L), and mass ratio on the electrical power extracted are quantified. It is found that there is an optimal value of xi_m (xi_opt) at which maximum electrical power is generated. As the radius or length of the coil is increased, the value of xi_opt is observed to increase. Although the maximum average power remains the same, a larger coil radius or length results in a more robust system in the sense that a relatively large amount of power can be extracted when xi_m is far from xi_opt, unlike the constant damping ratio case. The average power output is also a function of Reynolds number, primarily through the increased maximum oscillation amplitude that occurs with increased Reynolds number at least within the laminar range, although the general qualitative findings seem likely to carry across to high Reynolds number VIV