Financial Transmission Rights (FTR) as a Congestion Management Scheme in Electricity Transmission: Strategic Behavior in a Coupled FTR — Electricity Market Model

With the emergence of liberalized markets, transmission line congestion has been a prominent technical constraint that has to be accounted for in designing the new markets. Transmission line congestion is a phenomenon in electricity markets that emerges more severely in time with ever increasing demand in electricity and resultant excessive loading of transmission lines. Various congestion management techniques such as market splitting, market coupling etc. are utilized currently in energy markets. However on the long run financial transmission rights (FTR), which is readily used by some US electricity market operators such as PJM, New York and New England operators, has potential to dominate other markets too. Modelling financial transmission rights to test some strategic hypotheses is imperative to be able to introduce suitable policies and regulations. In this paper we present a modelling approach for financial transmission rights and examine strategic use of hidden knowledge in a hypothetical electricity — FTR market

A plasmonic enhanced photodetector based on silicon nanocrystals obtained through laser ablation

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We present a proof-of-concept photodetector which is sensitive in the visible spectrum. Silicon nanocrystals (Si-NCs) obtained by laser ablation are used as the active absorption region. Si-NC films are formed from a polymeric dispersion. The films are sandwiched between thin insulating films to reduce the electrical leakage current. Furthermore, Ag nanoparticles are integrated with the photodetector to enhance the visible response using plasmonic effects. The measured photocurrent is resonantly enhanced, which is explained in terms of enhanced local fields caused by localized plasmons. The UV-vis spectrum of Ag nanoparticles is also measured to verify the resonance. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd

Reducing bias in auditory duration reproduction by integrating the reproduced signal

Duration estimation is known to be far from veridical and to differ for sensory estimates and motor reproduction. To investigate how these differential estimates are integrated for estimating or reproducing a duration and to examine sensorimotor biases in duration comparison and reproduction tasks, we compared estimation biases and variances among three different duration estimation tasks: perceptual comparison, motor reproduction, and auditory reproduction (i.e. a combined perceptual-motor task). We found consistent overestimation in both motor and perceptual-motor auditory reproduction tasks, and the least overestimation in the comparison task. More interestingly, compared to pure motor reproduction, the overestimation bias was reduced in the auditory reproduction task, due to the additional reproduced auditory signal. We further manipulated the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the feedback/comparison tones to examine the changes in estimation biases and variances. Considering perceptual and motor biases as two independent components, we applied the reliability-based model, which successfully predicted the biases in auditory reproduction. Our findings thus provide behavioral evidence of how the brain combines motor and perceptual information together to reduce duration estimation biases and improve estimation reliability

The effect of titanium (Ti) and titanium 500 (ti 500) implantation on the activation of rat macrophage subgroups

© 2019, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved. Introduction: Nowadays it is necessary to make new researches in order to solve the problems related to the prolongation of life and related health problems, especially fractures and spinal degeneration. The biocompatibility, mechanical compatibility, morphological compatibility and osseointegration properties of the implant material are very important. In order to prevent unwanted side effects in the use of biomaterials, new strategies need to be developed. Implants, where they will be implanted and their functions will vary according to the characteristics of the material used. The most commonly used metallic materials are 316L stainless steel, Co-Cr alloys and Ti alloys. Objective: To demostrate the effect of Titanium and Titanium 500 on activation of macropages Material and Methods: Our research was performed in the Laboratory of Cytokines and Receptors in the Department of Physiology of Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa. Our research has been approved by the Animal Experiments Local Ethics Committee of Bezmialem Vakif University (Approval Number:2017/218). In order to control the rejection of the patient with specific inflammation caused by titanium implantation, we analyzed the first triggered cells of the innate immun system, especially macrophages and sub-groups (M1, M2a, M2b, M2c), by implanting Titanium and Titanium 500 into the spinal region in Wistar albino male rats. According to the Power Analysis statistic program, 3 different groups of Wistar albino species male rats with a weight of 250 - 300 grams and 10-12 weeks of age were formed. Group I (n: 8, Sham group (Control)), Group II (n: 8, Titanium alloy), Group III (n: 8, Titanium 500). No implant was used in Group I (sham group). Only surgical stress was applied to the rats and they were closed again. In Group II and Group III, the rods were placed on the lamina. Peripheral blood samples were collected on the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th days following the implantation phase. M1 macrophages (CCL3, CCL4, CXCL9, IL-23), M2a macrophages (CD163, CD206), M2b macrophages (CCL1), M2c macrophage (SLAM) markers were examined by ELISA (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay) method. Groups were compared with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). For the paired comparison of significant variables, a statistically significant difference (HSD) test was used for Tukey's homogeneous variance variables. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results and Conclusions: We believe that our analysis results will be helpful in the control, prevention, immunological and therapeutic methods of the reactions (inflammation, rejection, etc.) that may occur in patients who are implanted with Titanium (Ti) and Titanium 500 (Ti 500) implants (spinal, orthopedic, dental etc.)

Genome-wide Association Study of Borderline Personality Disorder Reveals Genetic Overlap with Bipolar Disorder, Major Depression and Schizophrenia

Borderline personality disorder (BOR) is determined by environmental and genetic factors, and characterized by affective instability and impulsivity, diagnostic symptoms also observed in manic phases of bipolar disorder (BIP). Up to 20% of BIP patients show comorbidity with BOR. This report describes the first case–control genome-wide association study (GWAS) of BOR, performed in one of the largest BOR patient samples worldwide. The focus of our analysis was (i) to detect genes and gene sets involved in BOR and (ii) to investigate the genetic overlap with BIP. As there is considerable genetic overlap between BIP, major depression (MDD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) and a high comorbidity of BOR and MDD, we also analyzed the genetic overlap of BOR with SCZ and MDD. GWAS, gene-based tests and gene-set analyses were performed in 998 BOR patients and 1545 controls. Linkage disequilibrium score regression was used to detect the genetic overlap between BOR and these disorders. Single marker analysis revealed no significant association after correction for multiple testing. Gene-based analysis yielded two significant genes: DPYD (P=4.42 × 10−7) and PKP4 (P=8.67 × 10−7); and gene-set analysis yielded a significant finding for exocytosis (GO:0006887, PFDR=0.019; FDR, false discovery rate). Prior studies have implicated DPYD, PKP4 and exocytosis in BIP and SCZ. The most notable finding of the present study was the genetic overlap of BOR with BIP (rg=0.28 [P=2.99 × 10−3]), SCZ (rg=0.34 [P=4.37 × 10−5]) and MDD (rg=0.57 [P=1.04 × 10−3]). We believe our study is the first to demonstrate that BOR overlaps with BIP, MDD and SCZ on the genetic level. Whether this is confined to transdiagnostic clinical symptoms should be examined in future studies

Miokarditis vezan uz slinavku i šap u sisajuće teladi.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) can lead to myocarditis in young animals, but the age distributions of calves with myocarditis have not been described, nor the biochemical profile in these calves. In an area endemic with foot-and-mouth disease, calves less than 6 months of age in infected farms were examined for clinical lesions and abnormalities in respiratory rate, heart rate and heart rhythm. In total, 53 calves were identified to be suspected of having foot-and-mouth disease infection. In 6 calves myocarditis was suspected based on tachypnea, tachycardia and gallop rhythm. In these 6 calves, cardiac troponin-I (cTnI) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were significantly higher (P<0.0001), but the levels of Creatinine Kinase MB (CK-MB) and Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were not. These 6 calves died within 2 days and histopathology confirmed myocarditis. All calves with myocarditis were younger than 2-months old, suggesting that myocarditis caused by FMD is mainly found in very young suckling calves.Slinavka i šap može dovesti do miokarditisa u mladih životinja. Dosada nije opisana dobna raspodjela miokarditisa ni biokemijski profil u teladi oboljele od slinavke i šapa. U jednom području gdje se slinavka i šap javlja endemijski, telad mlađa od šest mjeseci bila je na zaraženim farmama klinički pretražena posebice na poremećaje u frekvenciji bila, disanja i srčanog ritma. Ukupno su 53 teleta bila sumnjiva na slinavku i šap. Sumnja na miokarditis postavljena je u šest teladi i to na osnovi tahipneje, tahikardije i galopirajućeg ritma. U te su teladi razine srčanog troponina-I (cTnI) i aspartat-aminotransferaze (AST) bile značajno više (P<0,0001), dok razine kreatinin-kinaze MB (CK-MB) i laktat-dehidrogenaze (LDH) nisu. Tih šest teleta uginulo je unutar dva dana te je u njih miokarditis bio potvrđen patohistološki. Sva telad s miokarditisom bila je mlađa od dva mjeseca, što upućuje na zaključak da se miokarditis uzrokovan virusom slinavke i šapa pretežito javlja u sisajuće teladi najranije dobi

The Faces in Infant-Perspective Scenes Change over the First Year of Life

Mature face perception has its origins in the face experiences of infants. However, little is known about the basic statistics of faces in early visual environments. We used head cameras to capture and analyze over 72,000 infant-perspective scenes from 22 infants aged 1-11 months as they engaged in daily activities. The frequency of faces in these scenes declined markedly with age: for the youngest infants, faces were present 15 minutes in every waking hour but only 5 minutes for the oldest infants. In general, the available faces were well characterized by three properties: (1) they belonged to relatively few individuals; (2) they were close and visually large; and (3) they presented views showing both eyes. These three properties most strongly characterized the face corpora of our youngest infants and constitute environmental constraints on the early development of the visual system

B-cell receptor signal strength influences terminal differentiation

B-cell terminal differentiation into antibody secreting plasma cells (PCs) features a trans-criptional shift driven by the activation of plasma cell lineage determinants such as Blimp-1 and Xbp-1, together with the extinction of Pax5. Little is known about the signals inducing this change in transcriptional networks and the role of the B-cell receptor (BCR) in terminal differentiation remains especially controversial. Here, we show that tonic BCR signal strength influences PC commitment in vivo. Using immuno-globulin light chain transgenic mice expressing suboptimal surface BCR levels and latent membrane protein 2A knock-in animals with defined BCR-like signal strengths, we show that weak, antigen-independent constitutive BCR signaling facilitates spontaneous PC differentiation in vivo and in vitro in response to TLR agonists or CD40/IL-4. Conversely, increasing tonic signaling completely prevents this process that is rescued by lowering surface BCR expression or through the inhibition of Syk phosphorylation. These findings provide new insights into the role of basal BCR signaling in PC differentiation and point to the need to resolve a strong BCR signal in order to guarantee terminal differentiation