Voluntary agreements as information sharing devices: Competition and welfare effects

In this paper we consider Voluntary Agreements (VAs) as an information-sharing device. In a duopoly model firms compete à la Cournot and aim to reduce environmental damages because consumers have green preferences that partially internalise negative externalities. However both firms are uncertain about the real cost of pollution abatement. We suppose that this kind of uncertainty is completely eliminated if firms subscribe to a Voluntary Agreement and share information. We then represent the decision process as a two stage game where firms first choose to subscribe or not to a Voluntary Agreement and then compete in quantities. Information production and disclosure about costs eliminates production errors as both firms will be able to exactly counter-adjust their output to the output produced by their opponent. Thus profits are always maximised by subscribing to Voluntary Agreements. Concerning social welfare the picture is more complicated because there can be a trade-off between the advantage of voluntary agreements from the point of view of their impact on environmental damages and their social cost in terms of higher prices and lower quantities. Actually, output counter-adjustments are ''collusive'' and they benefit consumers only to the extent that their direction is such to reduce output and then environmental damages. Thus consumer surplus can increase if the weight of output counter-adjustments is low with respect to output adjustments that are operated by both firms in the same direction. If the weight of output counter-adjustments is higher consumer surplus can increase only if the efficiency of pollution-reducing activities inside firms differs a lot between these same firms. Our results seem to support the view that the great flexibility that voluntary agreements grant to firms with respect to mandatory standards can produce advantages also from the point of view of society

Mild to moderate bleeding: diagnostic and therapeutic paths

We consider mild to moderate bleedings all bleeding events that do not meet the criteria proposed by the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) for the definition of major bleeding. As regards the approach to the bleeding patient, the first step is undoubtedly an accurate collection of clinical history and overall physical examination. Then, the etiological diagnosis of a bleeding disorder uses a series of laboratory investigations, divided into first level tests, which are intended to identify the altered phase of the hemostatic process, and second level ones, i.e. more specific tests used if screening tests are negative or to better characterize the alteration identified by them. For the treatment of a bleeding disorder there are several approaches, all strictly dependent on the etiologic diagnosis of this disorder

The contribution of carsharing to low carbon mobility: Complementarity and substitution with other modes

This paper analyses both the attributes of carsharing transport modes (station-based and free-floating) and their relationship with other transport modes. Users' and stakeholders’ perspectives are synthesized from in-depth interviews in Spain. The elicitation of the comparative advantages of the two carsharing modes with respect to public transport and private vehicles helps identifying factors such as availability of parking, road pricing and convenience that drive the complementary and substitution property of carsharing with other transport modes. Interviews show the limited complementarity of carsharing with public transport, as well as the limited substitutability with private vehicles. Potential policy instruments to make carsharing coexist with public transport are discussed.The authors acknowledge support from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovations programme under grant agreement N?727524, Project: ?Enabling the Energy Union through understanding the drivers of individual and collective energy choices, in Europe?. This research is also supported by the Spanish State Research Agency through Mar?a de Maeztu Excellence Unit accreditation 2018?2022 (Ref. MDM-2017-0714); and by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018?2021 program. Alberto Ansuategi gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant RTI2018-093352-B-100) and the UPV/EHU (grant GIC18/29). Ibon Galarraga also wishes to acknowledge the financial support from the Government of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund through grant RTI2018-093692-B-I00

Comparison of two deep reinforcement learning algorithms towards an optimal policy for smart building thermal control

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are the main providers of occupant comfort, and at the same time, they represent a significant source of energy consumption. Improving their efficiency is essential for reducing the environmental impact of buildings. However, traditional rule-based and model-based strategies are often inefficient in real-world applications due to the complex building thermal dynamics and the influence of heterogeneous disturbances, such as unpredictable occupant behavior. In order to address this issue, the performance of two state-of-the-art model-free Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithms, Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) and Soft Actor-Critic (SAC), has been compared when the percentage valve opening is managed in a thermally activated building system, modeled in a simulated environment from data collected in an existing office building in Switzerland. Results show that PPO reduced energy costs by 18% and decreased temperature violations by 33%, while SAC achieved a 14% reduction in energy costs and 64% fewer temperature violations compared to the onsite Rule-Based Controller (RBC)

n-3 fatty acids and coronary artery disease

n-3 Poliunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA) are essential; foods rich in n-3 are fat fish and some vegetal oil. PUFA are precursors of Eicosanoids, involved in the processes of inflammation, thrombosis and immunity. Firstly, observational studies measured reduction of cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence with greater PUFA dietary intake. Experimental studies discovered antiahrrhytmic, antiatherogenic, antiaggregating and antiinflammatory properties. Retrospective analysis found lower incidence of sudden death (SD) in fish consumers. Randomized, prospective trials after myocardial infarction showed, in people either eating fish or receiving an n-3 PUFA supplement, a reduction of SD, explained by specific effect on membrane ion channels. The lack of results on atherothrombosis do not match with most experimental results, and should better be evaluated in absence of aspirin therapy. Low evidence supports use of n-3 PUFA in angina or revascularization procedures. Recent observations denote positive effect on endothelial function of large and resistance arteries. Actually evidence-based medicine suggest: improve of fish consumption for primary prevention of CVD; n-3 PUFA supplementation for hypertrigliceridemia and secondary prevention of SD after myocardial infarction, which is also cost-effectiveness

Real building implementation of a deep reinforcement learning controller to enhance energy efficiency and indoor temperature control

Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has emerged as a promising approach to address the trade-off between energy efficiency and indoor comfort in buildings, potentially outperforming conventional Rule-Based Controllers (RBC). This paper explores the real-world application of a Soft-Actor Critic (SAC) DRL controller in a building’s Thermally Activated Building System (TABS), focusing on optimising energy consumption and maintaining comfortable indoor temperatures. Our approach involves pre-training the DRL agent using a simplified Resistance-Capacitance (RC) model calibrated with real building data. The study first benchmarks the DRL controller against three RBCs, two Proportional-Integral (PI) controllers and a Model Predictive Controller (MPC) in a simulated environment. In the simulation study, DRL reduces energy consumption by 15% to 50% and decreases temperature violations by 25% compared to RBCs, reducing also energy consumption and temperature violations compared to PI controllers by respectively 23% and 5%. Moreover, DRL achieves comparable performance in terms of temperature control but consuming 29% more energy than an ideal MPC. When implemented in a real building during a two-month cooling season, the DRL controller performances were compared with those of the best-performing RBC, enhancing indoor temperature control by 68% without increasing energy consumption. This research demonstrates an effective strategy for training and deploying DRL controllers in real building energy systems, highlighting the potential of DRL in practical energy management applications

High-Efficient Bladeless Expander Concept

Tesla bladeless expanders are promising in energy harvesting and small-scale power generation applications due to their lower cost and simplicity in design. Although such expanders exhibit very high rotor efficiency (analytical total to static efficiency ~ 90%), it shows poor performance when coupled with a stator (experimental total to static efficiency ~30%) due to losses present in the stator and stator-rotor interaction. This paper presents the design and experiment of a novel, high-efficient Tesla bladeless expander concept. The concept arises from the loss phenomena in the stator-rotor interaction in conventional bladeless expanders, which are among the main causes of the low performance. This concept is believed to bring the bladeless expanders to the same performances as the traditional ones with vanes, compared to which however the bladeless machines boast greater simplicity, robustness, and the absence of performance decay as the size decreases, competing even in the contexts for traditional turbomachinery. The high-efficient bladeless expander prototype with water as a working fluid is designed and developed, representing the similitude case for a liquid butane heat pump. The available isentropic power across the throttling process in the butane case is 3.3 kW @10000 rpm. The turbine consists of 24 nozzles and 150 disks separated by 0.1 mm spacers. The turbine shaft is connected to the high-speed electric generator. The performance test on the expander is carried out at rotational speeds ranging from 3000 rpm to 6200 rpm and with differential pressure across the expander up to 14 bar. Experimental ventilation loss is characterised and its effect on the performance of the expander is discussed. The preliminary results of the expander under investigation showed satisfactory production of power with an acceptable efficiency range. It is also shown that the present concept is promising and able to address the major i.e., stator-rotor interaction which is the major source of loss in the traditional bladeless expander

Comparison between Trigonometric, and traditional DDS, in 90 nm technology

The Direct Digital frequency Synthesizer (DDS) is an architecture largely used for the generation of numeric sine and/or cosine waveforms in different applications. In this work, authors compare two different DDS architectures: the traditional architecture, based on the exploitation of quarter wave symmetry, and the Symon’s DDS (trigonometric DDS) presented in 2002. The two layout configurations have been implemented in 90 nm technology and compared in terms of area, speed and power consumption. Comparisons have been performed in terms of circuital complexity on architectures having the same Spurious Free Dynamic Range (SFDR) and phase resolution. Experiments show that the trigonometric architecture is very efficient in terms of area

Moving into the wide clinical spectrum of consciousness disorders: Pearls, perils and pitfalls

The last few years have been characterized by a growing interest of the medical and scientific world for the field of consciousness and its related disorders. Medically speaking, conscious- ness can be defined as the state of awareness of self and environment and the alertness to external stimulation, besides responsiveness to inner need. Transient loss of consciousness can be due to alterations in cerebral blood flow leading to fainting or syncope, migraine, metabolic dysfunctions, unexpected intracranial pressure increases, epileptic seizures, and sleep disorders. Chronic disorders of consciousness are a tragic success of high-technology treatment, in an attempt to maintain or reestablish brain function, which is to be considered as the main goal of therapeutics. Management of vegetative or a minimally conscious state individuals involves charily getting the right diagnosis with an evidence-based prognosis, also taking into account the medical, ethical, and legal key factors of the ideal treatment. This paper is aimed at exploring the wide spectrum of consciousness disorders and their clinical differential diagnosis, with particular regards to those with a negative impact on patient and their caregiver quality of life, including epilepsy, sleep disorders, and vegetative/minimally conscious state