The relationship between energy consumption and prices. Evidence from futures and spot markets in Spain and Portugal.

Slow economic recovery, market concentration, and scant alternative energy sources make the Iberian energy market quite idiosyncratic when compared to the rest of the EU. This paper focusses on the Iberian energy market by dealing with the analysis of the relationship between energy consumption and energy prices by using fractional integration in the Iberian market. This technique is used in order to examine the degree of persistence of the series, looking at the spot and futures markets in Spain and Portugal. The results indicate that all the series are fractionally integrated, showing long memory and mean reverting behaviour. Moreover, a close relation between energy consumption and energy prices is found in the spot market whereas it is not found in the futures market. In fact, there is a weak relationship between the futures market and energy consumption. However, regarding energy pricing, the relationship is stronger but with the spot market itself.post-print725 K

Plant Polyphenols and Exendin-4 Prevent Hyperactivity and TNF-alpha Release in LPS-Treated In vitro Neuron/Astrocyte/Microglial Networks

Increasing evidence supports a decisive role for neuroinflammation in the neurodegenerative process of several central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Microglia are essential mediators of neuroinflammation and can regulate a broad spectrum of cellular responses by releasing reactive oxygen intermediates, nitric oxide, proteases, excitatory amino acids, and cytokines. We have recently shown that also in ex-vivo cortical networks of neurons, astrocytes and microglia, an increased level of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) was detected a few hours after exposure to the bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Simultaneously, an atypical “seizure-like” neuronal network activity was recorded by multi-electrode array (MEA) electrophysiology. These effects were prevented by minocycline, an established anti-inflammatory antibiotic. We show here that the same inhibitory effect against LPS-induced neuroinflammation is exerted also by natural plant compounds, polyphenols, such as curcumin (CU, curcuma longa), crocin (CR, saffron), and resveratrol (RE, grape), as well as by the glucagon like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist exendin-4 (EX-4). The drugs tested also caused per-se early transient (variable) changes of network activity. Since it has been reported that LPS-induced neuroinflammation causes rearrangements of glutamate transporters in astrocytes and microglia, we suggest that neural activity could be putatively increased by an imbalance of glial glutamate transporter activity, leading to prolonged synaptic glutamatergic dysregulation

Terahertz photoconductivity and plasmon modes in double-quantum-well field-effect transistors

Double-quantum-well field-effect transistors with a grating gate exhibit a sharply resonant, voltage tuned terahertz photoconductivity. The voltage tuned resonance is determined by the plasma oscillations of the composite structure. The resonant photoconductivity requires a double-quantum well but the mechanism whereby plasma oscillations produce changes in device conductance is not understood. The phenomenon is potentially important for fast, tunable terahertz detectors

Urinary eicosanoid metabolites in HIV-infected women with central obesity switching to raltegravir: an analysis from the women, integrase, and fat accumulation trial.

Chronic inflammation is a hallmark of HIV infection. Eicosanoids reflect inflammation, oxidant stress, and vascular health and vary by sex and metabolic parameters. Raltegravir (RAL) is an HIV-1 integrase inhibitor that may have limited metabolic effects. We assessed urinary F2-isoprostanes (F2-IsoPs), prostaglandin E2 (PGE-M), prostacyclin (PGI-M), and thromboxane B2 (TxB2) in HIV-infected women switching to RAL-containing antiretroviral therapy (ART). Thirty-seven women (RAL = 17; PI/NNRTI = 20) with a median age of 43 years and BMI 32 kg/m(2) completed week 24. TxB2 increased in the RAL versus PI/NNRTI arm (+0.09 versus -0.02; P = 0.06). Baseline PGI-M was lower in the RAL arm (P = 0.005); no other between-arm cross-sectional differences were observed. In the PI/NNRTI arm, 24-week visceral adipose tissue change correlated with PGI-M (rho = 0.45; P = 0.04) and TxB2 (rho = 0.44; P = 0.005) changes, with a trend seen for PGE-M (rho = 0.41; P = 0.07). In an adjusted model, age ≥ 50 years (N = 8) was associated with increased PGE-M (P = 0.04). In this randomized trial, a switch to RAL did not significantly affect urinary eicosanoids over 24 weeks. In women continuing PI/NNRTI, increased visceral adipose tissue correlated with increased PGI-M and PGE-M. Older age (≥ 50) was associated with increased PGE-M. Relationships between aging, adiposity, ART, and eicosanoids during HIV-infection require further study

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli as a Potential Cause of Diarrheal Disease in Adults Infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Stools of 68 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults with diarrhea and 60 without diarrhea were examined for enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAggEc) by HeLa cell adherence assay. EAggEc were present in stools of 30 patients with and 18 without diarrhea (P = .05). CD4 cell counts of patients with EAggEc and diarrhea were significantly lower than those of patients with EAggEc without diarrhea (P = .02). There was no difference in the mean duration of diarrheal symptoms or in the number of stools per day between patients with EAggEc and those without. None of the EAggEc strains were positive by polymerase chain reaction for adherence fimbria, but 11 strains were positive for EAggEc heat-stable toxin EAST/1. Of the EAggEc strains, 51% were resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and 65% were resistant to ampicillin. EAggEc may be a pathogen in HIV-infected patients with diarrhea; HIV-infected patients with EAggEc appear to be more symptomatic when HIV disease is more advance

A graphical workstation based part-task flight simulator for preliminary rapid evaluation of advanced displays

Advances in avionics and display technology are significantly changing the cockpit environment in current transport aircraft. The MIT Aeronautical Systems Lab (ASL) developed a part-task flight simulator specifically to study the effects of these new technologies on flight crew situational awareness and performance. The simulator is based on a commercially-available graphics workstation, and can be rapidly reconfigured to meet the varying demands of experimental studies. The simulator was successfully used to evaluate graphical microbursts alerting displays, electronic instrument approach plates, terrain awareness and alerting displays, and ATC routing amendment delivery through digital datalinks

Nonequilibrium Green's function theory for transport and gain properties of quantum cascade structures

The transport and gain properties of quantum cascade (QC) structures are investigated using a nonequilibrium Green's function (NGF) theory which includes quantum effects beyond a Boltzmann transport description. In the NGF theory, we include interface roughness, impurity, and electron-phonon scattering processes within a self-consistent Born approximation, and electron-electron scattering in a mean-field approximation. With this theory we obtain a description of the nonequilibrium stationary state of QC structures under an applied bias, and hence we determine transport properties, such as the current-voltage characteristic of these structures. We define two contributions to the current, one contribution driven by the scattering-free part of the Hamiltonian, and the other driven by the scattering Hamiltonian. We find that the dominant part of the current in these structures, in contrast to simple superlattice structures, is governed mainly by the scattering Hamiltonian. In addition, by considering the linear response of the stationary state of the structure to an applied optical field, we determine the linear susceptibility, and hence the gain or absorption spectra of the structure. A comparison of the spectra obtained from the more rigorous NGF theory with simpler models shows that the spectra tend to be offset to higher values in the simpler theories.Comment: 44 pages, 16 figures, appearing in Physical Review B Dec 200

Light Meson Dynamics Workshop. Mini proceedings

The mini-proceedings of the Light Meson Dynamics Workshop held in Mainz from February 10th to 12th, 2014, are presented. The web page of the conference, which contains all talks, can be found at https://indico.cern.ch/event/287442/overview .Comment: 46 pages, 17 contributions. Editors: W. Gradl, P. Masjuan, M. Ostrick, and S. Schere