The effect of Demand Response and wind generation on electricity investment and operation. ESRI WP577, December 2017

We present a novel method of determining the contribution of load-shifting Demand Response (DR) to energy and reserve markets. We model DR in an Mixed Complementarity Problem (MCP) framework with high levels of wind penetration. Investment, exit and operational decisions are optimised simultaneously. We examine the potential for DR to participate in both energy and reserve markets. DR participation in the energy market reduces costs and prices but the impact of DR participation in reserve markets is limited. DR and wind generation are strongly complementary, due to the ability of DR to mitigate against the variability of wind generation, with the highest impacts of DR seen at high levels of wind penetration. DR participation in the energy market gives rise to lower equilibrium levels of investment in conventional generation and induces a Pareto improvement versus a market with no DR participation. The total impact of DR is highly dependent on specific system characteristics

The effect of Demand Response and wind generation on electricity investment and operation. ESRI Research Bulletin 2019/07

Concerns over climate change have led to an increase in renewable energy usage, particularly in the electricity sector. Given that the output from many renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar, increases and decreases throughout the course of a day or week, there is a greater requirement for the rest of the electricity system to behave flexibly as renewable energy increases. Traditionally, electricity demand was considered fixed and power generation units, such as coal, gas and oil units, varied their supply to match supply and demand in realtime. However in recent years, there has been a new focus on the potential for electricity demand itself to become flexible or responsive by means of households and businesses increasing their electricity usage at times of high availability, and decreasing their usage at times of low availability

The impacts of demand response participation in capacity markets. ESRI Research Bulletin 2019/10

Electricity demand varies over the course of a day or a year, with very high levels of electricity demand being seen for only a few hours per year. However, there must be sufficient electricity generation installed on the system to meet the total demand at these few hours per year, in order to avoid blackouts or brownouts, where electricity supply is disconnected for all or some customers, respectively. As electricity generation from variable renewable sources, such as wind and solar, increases, electricity market revenues decrease, which renders conventional generators less profitable. In order to ensure that there is sufficient conventional generation available to meet demand at the hours of highest demand per year, a separate market payment is made to generators, called a capacity payment

Delivery suite assessment unit: auditing innovation in maternity triage

yesA Delivery Suite Assessment Unit (DSAU) has been established at a large Northern teaching hospital. This was as a recommendation of ASQUAM (achieving sustainable quality in maternity) to reduce antenatal admissions to delivery suite and provide a more appropriate environment for women attending for antenatal or labour assessment. The DSAU has also provided an effective teaching environment where skills such as effective telephone triage, diagnosis of labour and care of women with pre-labour spontaneous rupture of membranes (SROM) have been developed by junior staff. The first twelve months' audit results indicate that the establishment of the DSAU has been successful in reducing antenatal admissions to delivery suite by increasing the transfers of clients home, rather than to the antenatal wards. This may reflect the confidence of the highly skilled midwives working in this environment and the confidence women feel about their ability to obtain prompt and accurate advice over the telephone

Impact of Demand Response Participation in Energy, Reserve and Capacity Markets

Demand response is capable of providing multiple services, including energy and reserve. As a consequence of providing energy, demand response is also inherently contributing to generation adequacy, and thus may be in entitled to avail of revenue from a capacity remuneration mechanism. Participation in multiple markets may result in a trade-off, thus necessitating simultaneous optimization of the demand response provision of such services. This paper uses Mixed Complementarity Problems to investigate these trade-offs and resulting market outcomes in the presence of load-shifting demand response. An approach to approximate the capacity value of the demand response resource, thereby permitting its participation in the capacity market, is also presented. It is found that, for the case study examined here, that demand response has its most significant impact on the energy market, with marginal and negligible impacts on the capacity and reserve market, respectively. The results also suggest that considerable cost savings are attainable by the DR aggregator through participation in the energy market, but that significant further cost savings are not forthcoming through participation in the reserve or capacity market

Enterovirus D68 subclade B3 Strain Circulating and Causing an Outbreak in the United States in 2016

In 2014 the United States experienced a nationwide outbreak of Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) infection. There were no confirmed cases of EV-D68 in 2015 and CDC was only aware of limited sporadic EV-D68 detection in the US in 2016. In this report, we analyzed 749 nasopharyngeal (NP) specimens collected in 2015 and 2016 from patients in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York using a previously validated EV-D68-specific rRT-PCR assay. EV-D68 was detected in none of 199 NP specimens collected in 2015, and in one of 108 (0.9%) samples from January to May and 159 of 442 (36.0%) samples from July to October 2016. Complete EV-D68 genome sequences from 22 patients in 2016 were obtained using a metagenomic next-generation sequencing assay. Comparative genome analysis confirmed that a new EV-D68 strain belonging to subclade B3, with 3.2-4.8% divergence in nucleotide from subclade B1 strains identified during the 2014 US outbreak, was circulating in the US in 2016 and caused an outbreak in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York with 160 laboratory-confirmed cases. Our data highlight the genetic variability and capacity in causing outbreak by diverse EV-D68 strains, and the necessity of awareness and more surveillance on their active circulation worldwide

A scalable, fully automated process for construction of sequence-ready human exome targeted capture libraries

Genome targeting methods enable cost-effective capture of specific subsets of the genome for sequencing. We present here an automated, highly scalable method for carrying out the Solution Hybrid Selection capture approach that provides a dramatic increase in scale and throughput of sequence-ready libraries produced. Significant process improvements and a series of in-process quality control checkpoints are also added. These process improvements can also be used in a manual version of the protocol

Older patients' attitudes towards and experiences of patient-physician end-of-life communication: a secondary analysis of interviews from British, Dutch and Belgian patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Older patients often experience sub-standard communication in the palliative phase of illness. Due to the importance of good communication in patient-centred end-of-life care, it is essential to understand the factors which influence older patients’ communication with physicians. This study examines older patients’ attitudes towards, and experiences of, patient-physician end-of-life (EoL) communication in three European countries.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A secondary analysis of interviews from British, Dutch and Belgian patients over the age of 60 with a progressive terminal illness was conducted. Cross-cutting themes were identified using a thematic approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Themes from 30 interviews (Male n = 20, Median age 78.5) included: confidence and trust; disclosure and awareness; and participation in decision-making. Confidence and trust were reinforced by physicians’ availability, time and genuine attention and hindered by misdiagnoses and poor communication style. Most participants preferred full disclosure, though some remained deliberately ill-informed to avoid distress. Patients expressed a variety of preferences for and experiences of involvement in medical EoL decision-making and a few complained that information was only provided about the physician's preferred treatment.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A variety of experiences and attitudes regarding disclosure and participation in decision-making were reported from each country, suggesting that communication preferences are highly individual. It is important that physicians are sensitive to this diversity and avoid stereotyping. In regard to communication style, physicians are advised to provide clear explanations, avoid jargon, and continually check understanding. Both the ‘informed’ and the ‘shared’ patient-physician decision-making models assume patients make rational choices based on a clear understanding of treatment options. This idealized situation was often not reflected in patients’ experiences.</p