The European Electricity Market and Cross-Border Transmission

This paper deals with basic characteristics and features of trading in electricity, especially in cross-border trading. First, the most important features of electricity as a commodity are explained, with the consequences for electricity trading. Then characteristics and changes in the electricity market after liberalization are discussed. This liberalization has taken place throughout Europe, and the consequences of this revolutionary change are still visible. The main features of electricity trading are mentioned in general. Then cross-border trade in Europe is discussed in greater detail. In this context the basic principles of the allocation of cross-border transmission capacities are explained.The next part of the paper considers the characteristics of the European electricity market from the trader’s point of view. Liquidity as a very important index is introduced here.Finally the most visible trends in cross-border trade and the most probable future development in this area are presented.

Ecophysiological Traits of Terrestrial and Aquatic Carnivorous Plants: Are the Costs and Benefits the Same?

Identification of trade-offs among physiological and morphological traits and their use in cost-benefit models and ecological or evolutionary optimization arguments have been hallmarks of ecological analysis for at least 50 years. Carnivorous plants are model systems for studying a wide range of ecophysiological and ecological processes and the application of a cost-benefit model for the evolution of carnivory by plants has provided many novel insights into trait-based cost-benefit models. Central to the cost-benefit model for the evolution of botanical carnivory is the relationship between nutrients and photosynthesis; of primary interest is how carnivorous plants efficiently obtain scarce nutrients that are supplied primarily in organic form as prey, digest and mineralize them so that they can be readily used, and allocate them to immediate versus future needs. Most carnivorous plants are terrestrial – they are rooted in sandy or peaty wetland soils – and most studies of cost-benefit trade-offs in carnivorous plants are based on terrestrial carnivorous plants. However approximately 10% of carnivorous plants are unrooted aquatic plants. In this Forum paper, we ask whether the cost-benefit model applies equally well to aquatic carnivorous plants and what general insights into trade-off models are gained by this comparison. Nutrient limitation is more pronounced in terrestrial carnivorous plants, which also have much lower growth rates and much higher ratio of dark respiration to photosynthetic rates than aquatic carnivorous plants. Phylogenetic constraints on ecophysiological trade-offs among carnivorous plants remain unexplored. Despite differences in detail, the general cost-benefit framework continues to be of great utility in understanding the evolutionary ecology of carnivorous plants. We provide a research agenda that if implemented would further our understanding of ecophysiological trade-offs in carnivorous plants and also would provide broader insights into similarities and differences between aquatic and terrestrial plants of all types.Organismic and Evolutionary BiologyOther Research Uni

Significance of ventricular late potentials in non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy

To assess the incidence and clinical significance of ventricular late potentials in non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy, 51 consecutive (44 male, seven female, mean age 53± 11 years) patients with dilated cardiomyopathy were studied. Twenty-eight patients (55%) were in New York Heart Association functional class III or IV, 34 out of 51 (76%) had a left ventricular ejection fraction of less than 40%, 10 out of 51 (20%) had a history of sustained ventricular tachycardia ( VT), 24 out of 37 (65%) had runs of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia during Holier monitoring and 15 out of 51 (29%) had a left bundle branch block. A signal-averaged electrocardiogram (gain 106 x, bipolar chest leads, filters 100-300 Hz) was performed in all the patients; late potentials were considered present if the total filtered QRS duration was longer than 118 ms and the interval between the end of QRS and the voltage 40 μV was more than 40 ms in the absence of left bundle branch block (total filtered QRS duration > 140 ms and interval between the end of QRS and the voltage 40 μV>50ms in the presence of left bundle branch block). Ventricular late potentials were detected in 22 out of 51 patients (43%). Late potentials were present in 80% (eight out of 10) of patients with sustained ventricular tachycardia but in only 34% (14 of 41) without sustained ventricular tachycardia (P < 0.01). This difference remained statistically significant even when patients with a left bundle branch block were excluded from the analysis (4 out of 6 vs 4 out of 30, P<0.01). To identify patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and sustained ventricular tachycardia, signal-averaging had a sensitivity of 80%, a specificity of 66%, a positive predictive value of 36% and a negative predictive value of 93%. It is concluded that, in non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy, the signal-averaged electrocardiogram allows the identification of patients with sustained ventricular tachycardia, even in the presence of a left bundle branch bloc

Acute coronary occlusion secondary to radiofrequency catheter ablation of a left lateral accessory pathway

A case of asymptomatic acute coronary occlusion secondary to radiofrequency catheter ablation of a left lateral accessory pathway is reported. Due to post-procedural ST modifications of the surface ECG, a coronary angiography was performed which disclosed total occlusion of the first marginal branch of the left circumflex coronary artery. A cute myocardial infarction was confirmed by moderate cardiac enzyme release, abnormal myocardial perfusion scan and mild lateral hypokinesia at echocardiographv. This rare but potentially harmful complication of interventional electrophysiology should be kept in mind and coronary angiography performed immediately when coronary occlusion related to radiofrequency application is suspecte

Predicting Impaired Extinction of Traumatic Memory and Elevated Startle

Emotionally traumatic experiences can lead to debilitating anxiety disorders, such as phobias and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Exposure to such experiences, however, is not sufficient to induce pathology, as only up to one quarter of people exposed to such events develop PTSD. These statistics, combined with findings that smaller hippocampal size prior to the trauma is associated with higher risk of developing PTSD, suggest that there are pre-disposing factors for such pathology. Because prospective studies in humans are limited and costly, investigating such pre-dispositions, and thus advancing understanding of the genesis of such pathologies, requires the use of animal models where predispositions are identified before the emotional trauma. Most existing animal models are retrospective: they classify subjects as those with or without a PTSD-like phenotype long after experiencing a traumatic event. Attempts to create prospective animal models have been largely unsuccessful.Here we report that individual predispositions to a PTSD-like phenotype, consisting of impaired rate and magnitude of extinction of an emotionally traumatic event coupled with long-lasting elevation of acoustic startle responses, can be revealed following exposure to a mild stressor, but before experiencing emotional trauma. We compare, in rats, the utility of several classification criteria and report that a combination of criteria based on acoustic startle responses and behavior in an anxiogenic environment is a reliable predictor of a PTSD-like phenotype.There are individual predispositions to developing impaired extinction and elevated acoustic startle that can be identified after exposure to a mildly stressful event, which by itself does not induce such a behavioral phenotype. The model presented here is a valuable tool for studying the etiology and pathophysiology of anxiety disorders and provides a platform for testing behavioral and pharmacological interventions that can reduce the probability of developing pathologic behaviors associated with such disorders

Ensemble Kalman filter assimilation of temperature and altimeter data with bias correction and application to seasonal prediction

To compensate for a poorly known geoid, satellite altimeter data is usually analyzed in terms of anomalies from the time mean record. When such anomalies are assimilated into an ocean model, the bias between the climatologies of the model and data is problematic. An ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is modified to account for the presence of a forecast-model bias and applied to the assimilation of TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) altimeter data. The online bias correction (OBC) algorithm uses the same ensemble of model state vectors to estimate biased-error and unbiased-error covariance matrices. Covariance localization is used but the bias covariances have different localization scales from the unbiased-error covariances, thereby accounting for the fact that the bias in a global ocean model could have much larger spatial scales than the random error.The method is applied to a 27-layer version of the Poseidon global ocean general circulation model with about 30-million state variables. Experiments in which T/P altimeter anomalies are assimilated show that the OBC reduces the RMS observation minus forecast difference for sea-surface height (SSH) over a similar EnKF run in which OBC is not used. Independent in situ temperature observations show that the temperature field is also improved. When the T/P data and in situ temperature data are assimilated in the same run and the configuration of the ensemble at the end of the run is used to initialize the ocean component of the GMAO coupled forecast model, seasonal SSH hindcasts made with the coupled model are generally better than those initialized with optimal interpolation of temperature observations without altimeter data. The analysis of the corresponding sea-surface temperature hindcasts is not as conclusive

Intra-hisian 2:1 atrioventricular block secondary to Lyme disease

We describe a case of Lyme carditis with intra-hisian 2:1 atrioventricular (AV) block documented by electrophysiological study. To our knowledge, only two cases of AV block at the level of the His bundle has been described in the literature. Sinus rhythm was restored after 4 days of i.v. ceftriaxon

Secretoglobin and Transferrin Expression in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid of Horses with Chronic Respiratory Disease

Background: Lower expression of secretoglobin and transferrin has been found in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of a small number of horses with experimentally induced signs of recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) compared to healthy controls. Hypothesis/Objectives: Secretoglobin and transferrin BALF expression will be similarly decreased in horses with naturally occurring clinical signs of RAO and in horses with experimentally induced clinical signs of RAO as compared to healthy controls and intermediate in horses with inflammatory airway disease (IAD). Animals: Recurrent airway obstruction-affected and control horses were subjected to an experimental hay exposure trial to induce signs of RAO. Client-owned horses with a presumptive diagnosis of RAO and controls from the same stable environments were recruited. Methods: Pulmonary function and BALF were evaluated from control and RAO-affected research horses during an experimental hay exposure trial (n = 5 in each group) and from client-owned horses (RAO-affected horses, n = 17; IAD-affected horses, n = 19; healthy controls, n = 5). The concentrations of secretoglobin and transferrin in BALF were assessed using Western blots. Results: Naturally occurring and experimentally induced RAO horses had similar decreases in BALF transferrin expression, but secretoglobin expression was most decreased in naturally occurring RAO. Secretoglobin and transferrin expression were both lower in BALF of RAO-affected horses than in IAD-affected and control horses. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Secretoglobin and transferrin expression is decreased in BALF of RAO-affected horses after both experimental and natural exposure. Secretoglobin and transferrin likely play clinically relevant roles in the pathophysiology of RAO, and may thus be used as biomarkers of the disease