Past, Present and Future of the Single Market of the EU

The Single Market is one of the most important undertaking of the EU. Its establishment has officially started in 1957 with signing the Treaty of Rome which provided a suitable basis for creating the European Economic Community (EEC). The major aim of the EEC was to establish a common market based on the “four-freedom” in order to create a proper basis for a balanced, long-term sustainable economic development. Since 1957, the Single Market went through several changes. The EU member states prepared several action plans and strategies in order to continuously develop it. Irrespectively of that, the institution of the Single Market can not bee considered as a completed process. Although, it provides significant advantages both for EU companies and citizens, it always has to be improved for being able to adjust to the continuously changing global environment.European Economic Community, four freedoms, EU Single Market

Target-selective GABAergic control of entorhinal cortex output.

The medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) is a major center for spatial navigation and memory. We found that cannabinoid type 1 receptor-expressing GABAergic basket cells selectively innervated principal cells in layer II of the rat MEC that projected outside the hippocampus but avoided neighboring cells that give rise to the perforant pathway to the dentate gyrus. These results indicate that the organization of GABAergic microcircuits reflects the long-distance axonal targets of principal neurons

Nuclear rocket shielding methods, modification, updating, and input data preparation. Volume 4 - One-dimensional, discrete ordinates transport technique Final progress report

One dimensional, discrete ordinates transport technique for use with nuclear rocket shielding methods, modification, updating, and data input preparation - Vol.

Trajectory Tracking Control of an Autonomous Ground Vehicle

This thesis proposes a solution to the problem of making an autonomous nonholonomic ground vehicle track a special trajectory while following a reference velocity profile. The proposed strategies have been analyzed, simulated and eventually implemented and verified in Alice, Team Caltech's contribution to the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge competition for autonomous vehicles. The system architecture of Alice is reviewed. A kinematic vehicle model is derived. Lateral and longitudinal controllers are proposed and analyzed, with emphasis on the nonlinear state feedback lateral controller. Relevant implementation aspects and contingency management is discussed. Finally, results from simulation and field tests are presented and discussed

On Automation in Anesthesia

The thesis discusses closed-loop control of the hypnotic and the analgesic components of anesthesia. The objective of the work has been to develop a system which independently controls the intravenous infusion rates of the hypnotic drug propofol and analgesic drug remifentanil. The system is designed to track a reference hypnotic depth level, while maintaining adequate analgesia. This is complicated by inter-patient variability in drug sensitivity, disturbances caused foremost by surgical stimulation, and measurement noise. A commercially available monitor is used to measure the hypnotic depth of the patient, while a simple soft sensor estimates the analgesic depth. Both induction and maintenance of anesthesia are closed-loop controlled, using a PID controller for propofol and a P controller for remifentanil. In order to tune the controllers, patient models have been identified from clinical data, with body mass as only biometric parameter. Care has been taken to characterize identifiability and produce models which are safe for the intended application. A scheme for individualizing the controller tuning upon completion of the induction phase of anesthesia is proposed. Practical aspects such as integrator anti-windup and loss of the measurement signal are explicitly addressed. The validity of the performance measures, most commonly reported in closed-loop anesthesia studies, is debated and a new set of measures is proposed. It is shown, both in simulation and clinically, that PID control provides a viable approach. Both results from simulations and clinical trials are presented. These results suggest that closed-loop controlled anesthesia can be provided in a safe and efficient manner, relieving the regulatory and server controller role of the anesthesiologist. However, outlier patient dynamics, unmeasurable disturbances and scenarios which are not considered in the controller synthesis, urge the presence of an anesthesiologist. Closed-loop controlled anesthesia should therefore not be viewed as a replacement of human expertise, but rather as a tool, similar to the cruise controller of a car

Assessing Mid-Holocene Aridity in Central Ohio Using a Multi-proxy Lake Based Approach

The continental interior of North America experienced a period of prolonged warming and aridity during the Mid-Holocene. Although the general span of maximum warmth and dryness is believed to have been about 6,000 years BP during the Holocene Thermal Maximum, the regional variability, environmental response, and timing of this event are complex and not fully understood. To better understand the nature of this period for Central Ohio three paleolimnologic proxies (Carbon to Nitrogen ratios (C:N), percent organic Carbon as estimated through loss on ignition (LOI), and sub-fossil midge remains) are analyzed from a sediment core collected from Smoot Lake (Licking County, Ohio) to reconstruct the Holocene paleoenvironmental record for Central Ohio. Sub-fossil midge remains in particular are a useful paleolimnologic proxy that has not yet been utilized in the Midwest. The proxies are interpreted as indicators of effective moisture from interpreted changes in lake levels. This study found that an extended period of low lake levels existed during the early Holocene reaching maximum dryness at 8,500 years BP with levels recovering by 7,000 years BP. Another shorter period of aridity is centered around 3,500 years BP. This study demonstrates that sub-fossil midge remains are a valuable proxy for changes in lake levels. Should future climate return to the warmer levels recorded during the Mid-Holocene, effective moisture is also likely to decrease which will have ecological and societal implications for Central Ohio.OSU Carbon, Water and Climate TIENo embarg

Regulation of fast-spiking basket cell synapses by the chloride channel ClC-2.

Parvalbumin-expressing, fast-spiking basket cells are important for the generation of synchronous, rhythmic population activities in the hippocampus. We found that GABAA receptor-mediated synaptic inputs from murine parvalbumin-expressing basket cells were selectively modulated by the membrane voltage- and intracellular chloride-dependent chloride channel ClC-2. Our data reveal a previously unknown cell type-specific regulation of intracellular chloride homeostasis in the perisomatic region of hippocampal pyramidal neurons