Generalized Nash Equilibrium and Market Coupling in the European Power System

Market Coupling'' is currently seen as the most advanced market design in the restructuring of the European electricity market. Market coupling, by construction, introduces what is generally referred to as an incomplete market: it leaves several constraints out of the market and hence avoids pricing them. This may or may not have important consequences in practice depending on the case on hand. QuasiVariational Inequality problems. We apply one of these methods to a subproblem of market coupling namely the coordination of counter-trading. This problem is an illustration of a more general question encountered for instance in hierarchical planning in production management. We first discuss the economic interpretation of the Quasi-Variational Inequality problem. We then apply the algorithmic approach to a set of stylized case studies in order to illustrate the impact of different organizations of counter-trading. The paper emphazises the structuring of the problem. A companion paper considers the full problem of market coupling and counter-trading and presents a more extensive numerical analysis

A top-down, three-scale numerical analysis of wafer-to-wafer metallic bonding

To study the sensitivity to micro-scale imperfections of the strength of a metallic, wafer-to-wafer MEMS bonding, we propose a three-scale numerical (finite element) approach. At the wafer level (macro-scale), accounting for the whole metallic sealing through nonlinear springs connecting the two silicon wafers modelled as thin plates, we link the force transferred by each single MEMS die to the external pressure applied to the wafers. This force is next used as an index for the input pressure at the die level (meso-scale), where the geometry of the metallic rings is accurately described: the local stress field at the interface between the upper and lower metallic rings is so obtained. Finally, a local (micro-scale) model is used to link the aforementioned local stress field in each die to the bonding strength: representative volumes of the rings getting into contact, accounting in a statistically way for the relevant surface roughness (which is on the order or tens of nanometers at most), are adopted to obtain the relationship between the external pressure and the percentage of sealed area. This information is exploited to assess the properties of the rings, in terms of expected bonding strength

Sistema binario di sonde fluorescenti per PCR real-time, metodo diagnostico e kit relativo

L' Invenzione concerne un sistema binario di sonde delle quali almeno una presenta geometria circolare, ad elevata specificità, da utilizzare nella tecnica della PCR real-time come kit diagnostico per la rilevazione specifica di sequenze geniche e la discriminazione di specie microbiche , quali ad esempio , la sequenza IS 6110 di Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Characteristics of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Abkhazia (Georgia), a high-prevalence area in Eastern Europe

Although multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in Eastern Europe, the factors contributing to emergence, spread and containment of MDR-TB are not well defined. Here, we analysed the characteristics of drug-resistant TB in a cross-sectional study in Abkhazia (Georgia) between 2003 and 2005, where standard short-course chemotherapy is supplemented with individualized drug-resistance therapy. Drug susceptibility testing (DST) and molecular typing were carried out for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains from consecutive smear-positive TB patients. Out of 366 patients, 60.4% were resistant to any first-line drugs and 21% had MDR-TB. Overall, 25% of all strains belong to the Beijing genotype, which was found to be strongly associated with the risk of MDR-TB (OR 25.9, 95% CI 10.2-66.0) and transmission (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.6-5.0). One dominant MDR Beijing clone represents 23% of all MDR-TB cases. The level of MDR-TB did not decline during the study period, coinciding with increasing levels of MDR Beijing strains among previously treated cases. Standard chemotherapy plus individualized drug-resistance therapy, guided by conventional DST, might be not sufficient to control MDR-TB in Eastern Europe in light of the spread of "highly transmissible" MDR Beijing strains circulating in the community

Treatment of tuberculosis in a region with high drug resistance: Outcomes, drug resistance amplification and re-infection

Introduction: Emerging antituberculosis drug resistance is a serious threat for tuberculosis (TB) control, especially in Eastern European countries. Methods: We combined drug susceptibility results and molecular strain typing data with treatment outcome reports to assess the influence of drug resistance on TB treatment outcomes in a prospective cohort of patients from Abkhazia (Georgia). Patients received individualized treatment regimens based on drug susceptibility testing (DST) results. Definitions for antituberculosis drug resistance and treatment outcomes were in line with current WHO recommendations. First and second line DST, and molecular typing were performed in a supranational laboratory for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strains from consecutive sputum smear-positive TB patients at baseline and during treatment. Results: At baseline, MTB strains were fully drug-susceptible in 189/326 (58.0%) of patients. Resistance to at least H or R (PDR-TB) and multidrug-resistance (MDR-TB) were found in 69/326 (21.2%) and 68/326 (20.9%) of strains, respectively. Three MDR-TB strains were also extensively resistant (XDR-TB). During treatment, 3/189 (1.6%) fully susceptible patients at baseline were re-infected with a MDR-TB strain and 2/58 (3.4%) PDR-TB patients became MDR-TB due to resistance amplification. 5/ 47 (10.6%) MDR- patients became XDR-TB during treatment. Treatment success was observed in 161/189 (85.2%), 54/69 (78.3%) and 22/68 (32.3%) of patients with fully drug susceptible, PDR- and MDR-TB, respectively. Development of ofloxacin resistance was significantly associated with a negative treatment outcome. Conclusion: In Abkhazia, a region with high prevalence of drug resistant TB, the use of individualized MDR-TB treatment regimens resulted in poor treatment outcomes and XDR-TB amplification. Nosocomial transmission of MDR-TB emphasizes the importance of infection control in hospitals

An ex vivo porcine spleen perfusion as a model of bacterial sepsis

An ex vivo, porcine spleen perfusion model was established to study the early events occurring in the spleen prior to the onset of bacterial sepsis, using organs retrieved from animals slaughtered for food production. Porcine spleens were harvested from adult pigs and connected to a normothermic extracorporeal perfusion circuit. Constant perfusion of heparinized blood was performed for 6 hours. After injection of Streptococcus pneumoniae to the circuit, serial samples of both blood and spleen biopsies were collected and analyzed. Functionality of the perfused organs was assessed by monitoring the blood-gas parameters, flow rate and filtering capability of the organ. Interestingly, we observed full clearance of bacteria from the blood and an increase in bacterial counts in the spleen. Classical histology and immunohistochemistry on biopsies also confirmed no major damage in the organ architecture and no changes in the immune cell distribution other than the presence of clusters of pneumococci. A time-course study confirmed that each focus of infection derived from the replication of single pneumococcal cells within splenic macrophages. The model proposed – in line with the 3Rs principles – has utility in the replacement of experimental animals in infection research. Murine models are prevalently used to study pneumococcal infections but are often not predictive for humans due to substantial differences in the immune systems of the two species. This model is designed to overcome these limitations, since porcine immunology, and splenic architecture in particular, closely resemble those of humans

Dynamic Spatial Auction Market Models with General Cost Mappings

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New YorkThe deregulation of electricity markets in Europe has deeply changed the organization of this sector. Vertically integrated generating companies have been unbundled to create competition and to increase the competitiveness of electricity markets. Directive 96/92/EC was issued by the European Commission to liberalize electricity markets and to pave the way for the creation of the Internal Electricity Market. In particular, this Directive aimed at promoting the competition in the activities of electricity generation and wholesale through the creation of a “marketplace” and the maximization of transparency and efficiency. Competition in European day-ahead electricity markets has been established through auction markets where electricity producers and consumers offer/bid prices and volumes. This paper suggests a dynamic equilibrium model for a system of auction markets linked by transmission lines and subject to energy balance and transmission constraints, such as those characterizing restructured electricity markets. This model is treated as a system of variational inequalities with arbitrary monotone mappings. An inexact splitting type method is proposed to find its solution. Numerical experiments are conducted on the Italian day-ahead electricity market

Evaluating the effects of environmental regulations on a closed-loop supply chain network: a variational inequality approach

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Global climate change has encouraged international and regional adoption of pollution taxes and carbon emission reduction policies. Europe has taken the leadership in environmental regulations by introducing the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) in 2005 and by promoting a set of policies destined to lower carbon emissions from energy, industrial, and transport sectors. These environmental policies have significantly affected the production choices of these European sectors. Considering this framework, the objective of this paper is to evaluate the effects of the application of environmental policies in a multitiered closed-loop supply chain network where raw material suppliers, manufacturers, consumers, and recovery centers operate. In particular, we assume that manufacturers are subject to the EU-ETS and a carbon tax is imposed on truck transport. In this way, the developed model captures carbon emission regulations, recycling, transportation and technological factors within a unified framework. In particular, it allows for evaluating the impacts of the considered environmental regulations on carbon emissions, product flows, and prices. The proposed model is optimized and solved by using the theory of variational inequalities. Our analysis shows that the combined application of the EU-ETS at the manufacturers’ tier and the carbon tax on truck transport implies additional costs for producers that reduce their good provisions. On the other side, this has a positive outcome for the environment since (Formula presented.) emissions reduce. Moreover, an increase of the efficiency level of the recycling process increments the availability of reusable raw material in the reverse supply chain. Finally, the distance between a couple of CLSC tiers plays a very important role. The lower is the distance covered by vehicles, the higher is the production of goods and the lower is the amount of (Formula presented.) emitted

Decomposition method for oligopolistic competitive models with common environmental regulation

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media New YorkGlobal climate change has encouraged international and regional adoption of environmental policies aiming at reducing the generation of greenhouse gas emissions. Europe has taken the leadership in environmental regulations by introducing the European-Union Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) in 2005 and other policies to mitigate carbon emissions and increase the efficiency of production processes. These environmental policies have significantly affected the production choices of the European energy and industrial sectors. In this paper, we consider a market where a set of players (firms) produce different commodities under a common environmental regulation that limits their emissions. Due to these environmental restrictions, the problem is treated as a generalized non-cooperative game where players have joint (environmental) constraints caused by the common and compulsory emission regulation. The problem is to find a natural mechanism for attaining the corresponding generalized equilibrium state. We suggest a share allocation method, which yields a suitable decomposition type procedure and replaces the initial problem with a sequence of non-cooperative games on Cartesian product sets. We also show that its implementation can be simplified essentially after the application of a regularized penalty method. In the case study, we take inspiration from the EU-ETS and we introduce an environmental regulation that restricts the carbon emissions of firms representing the energy, cement, and steel sectors respectively in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Our results confirm the important role played by energy sector in reducing carbon emissions

Dynamic Spatial Auction Market Models with General Cost Mappings

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. The deregulation of electricity markets in Europe has deeply changed the organization of this sector. Vertically integrated generating companies have been unbundled to create competition and to increase the competitiveness of electricity markets. Directive 96/92/EC was issued by the European Commission to liberalize electricity markets and to pave the way for the creation of the Internal Electricity Market. In particular, this Directive aimed at promoting the competition in the activities of electricity generation and wholesale through the creation of a “marketplace” and the maximization of transparency and efficiency. Competition in European day-ahead electricity markets has been established through auction markets where electricity producers and consumers offer/bid prices and volumes. This paper suggests a dynamic equilibrium model for a system of auction markets linked by transmission lines and subject to energy balance and transmission constraints, such as those characterizing restructured electricity markets. This model is treated as a system of variational inequalities with arbitrary monotone mappings. An inexact splitting type method is proposed to find its solution. Numerical experiments are conducted on the Italian day-ahead electricity market