CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE SLOVENIAN ELECTRICITY MARKET

Slovenija je nakon osamostaljenja prilikom priprema za uključenje u Europsku uniju krenula na put institucionalnog i organizacijskog preoblikovanja elektroenergetskog sektora sukladno europskim smjernicama i direktivama. Pri tome je morala pratiti osnovni cilj, to jest, kako s uvođenjem tržišnih odnosa unutar elektroprivrednih djelatnosti i između elektroprivrede i potrošača postići konkurentne cijene električne energije i na taj način sniziti troškove te povećati dodanu vrijednost i konkurentnost gospodarstva. Poslovni rezultati elektroenergetskog sektora ukazuju na uspješnost restrukturiranja. Slovenska se elektroprivreda ubrzano priprema na nove izazove elektroenergetskog sektora – prije svega potpuno otvaranje tržišta i tržišno dodjeljivanje prekograničnih prijenosnih kapaciteta, nakon 1. srpnja 2007. godineFollowing independence and during the period of preparation for entry into the European Union, Slovenia embarked upon the institutional and organizational reconstruction of the electricity sector, pursuant to European guidelines and directives. The basic goals were to achieve competitive electricity prices, and so reduce costs and increase the added value and competitiveness of the economy through the introduction of market relations within the operations of the electric power industry and between the electric power industry and electricity consumers. The performance of the electricity sector is an indication of the success of this reconstruction. The Slovenian electric power industry has accelerated preparations for the new challenges confronting the electricity sector - first of all the complete opening of the market and the market allocation of cross-border transmission capacities after July 1, 2007

Perspectives on hybrid control of the anesthesia-hemodynamic system in the pandemic context

This paper provides a visionary perspective on human-machine collaboration in a medical cyber-physical system (MCPS) during the 2020 pandemic context. For the time being, medical specialists in the operating room (OR) or Intensive Care Units (ICU) face special responsibilities when the procedures involve a patient with an infectious disease (e.g., COVID-19) that can cause several complications. The added workload of the anesthesiologist can be diminished by the context-aware pervasive assistance in the decision- making process for maintaining the optimal anesthesia and hemodynamics of the patient. A self-aware control system, with feedback from patient's monitored parameters and several surgical/ICU contextual data, is able to adapt his action accordingly, increasing treatment accuracy. The three main parts of general anesthesia (neuromuscular blockade, hypnosis and analgesia) and the hemodynamics (cardiac output, blood pressure) are perused from a global objective viewpoint, while intersecting the anesthesiologist's action upon his request. The integrative anesthesiologist-in-the-loop cyber-physical system (CPS) is emerging as an intelligent solution for hybrid control of anesthesia's depth, instead of total autonomous closed-loop controllers. This paper aims to create awareness throughout the anesthesiologists about the usefulness of integrating automation and data exchange in their clinical practice for providing increased attention to alarming situations. Moreover, it proposes an opening horizon for multi-disciplinary research. Hence, the connection between clinical and engineering frameworks envisages significant patient safety

Experimental validation of a hypothesis for lung tumour dynamic characterisation

This paper describes seminal work for using tools from fractional calculus on modelling geometry and dynamical nonlinear effects in a mimicked lung tumour setup. A device and methodology are tailored to verify the hypothesis that presence of tumour in lung will affect the frequency dependent respiratory impedance. The data is analysed in terms of detection and quantification of nonlinear distortion in two situations mimicked by the proposed setup: a normal lung and a tumorous lung. Results indicate the feasibility of this research direction and the paper outlines the opportunities at hand