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Objective Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare, chronic disease characterized by fibrosis, vascular alterations and digital ulcerations. Few drugs have shown efficacy to enhance wound healing of existing SSc-related ulcers. Local delivery of treprostinil, a prostacyclin analogue, may improve wound healing. The present work aimed first at developing a mouse model of SSc-related ulcerations and second at assessing the effect of iontophoresis of treprostinil on wound healing. Methods We used two murine models of SSc: chemically induced with HOCl, and urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR)-deficient. Excisional wounding was performed on the dorsal midline with a biopsy punch. Animals were randomized into three groups: treated with electrostimulation alone, with treprostinil iontophoresis or untreated. We assessed wound healing over time, as well as skin microvascular reactivity, inflammation, microvessel density and collagen distribution, before wounding and after re-epithelialization. Results uPAR–/– mice, but not HOCl-treated mice, showed impaired wound healing and decreased microvascular reactivity compared with their controls. Treprostinil iontophoresis improved wound healing and microvascular density and decreased inflammation in uPAR–/– mice, while electro-stimulation did not. However, treprostinil had no effect on microvascular reactivity and collagen distribution. Conclusion This study suggests that excisional wounds in uPAR–/– mice are a relevant model of SSc-related ulcers. In addition, treprostinil iontophoresis enhances wound healing in this model. Further work in now needed to show whether this effect translates in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine some of the most important economic benefits brought about by distributed generation technologies to the distribution utility and the power system. Models are developed that allow the quantification of those benefits in economic terms. In some cases, industry regulators or utilities charge connection fees to the owners of distributed generators, even if they are saving the local utility considerable amounts of money every year in deferred network upgrades, reduced losses, avoided wholesale market purchases and others. Efficient economic systems dictate that a proper share of the indirect benefits created by a given economic activity leads to overall optimal independent decision-making by its participants. Quantifying and allocating the benefits of distributed generation to the owners improves the economic performance of their investments and encourages the implementation of those distributed generation applications most valuable to the system. Index Terms--Allocation, distributed generation, economic benefits.

This paper develops a quantification of the most important benefits brought about by the systematic operation of customer-owned back-up generators by distribution utilities or load-serving entities. The back-up reciprocating or internal combustion engine is the most widespread form of distributed generation, demonstrating high penetration levels in commercial and industrial areas. If the load-serving entity can oversee the operation of some of these units during strategic hours, important benefits can be realized, not only for the utility, but also for the owner of the unit and the society in general as shown in the results. The most important benefits of this coordinated operation are identified and quantified, using real cost data and pricing from a real North American electricity market. Index Terms--Distributed generation, distribution network, economic benefits, load serving entity.

This paper presents a generalized approach for the estimation of average displaced or avoided system emissions by intermittent renewable sources such as wind. The quantification of the environmental benefits of renewable energy projects is of utmost importance for: 1) the creation and trading of certified emission reductions or credits and 2) the design of green energy government policies that recognize the contribution of renewable energy for the reduction of national/regional carbon emissions. The proposed approach is based on the correlation factor between time-evolution of system marginal emissions and wind power generation. Results show that average displaced emissions by wind generation can be estimated once typical power system dispatch data and regional wind generation is available, thus circumventing the use of proprietary power dispatch models. The main objective of this work is to contribute towards the development of simplified methodologies that will facilitate the assessment of renewable energy projects in a variety of regulatory and regional settings. Index Terms--Emissions, renewable energy, wind generation.

This paper presents an approach to the quantification of the distribution network capacity deferral value of distributed generation (DG). Besides different technical benefits such as reliability and power quality improvement, there are a number of economic benefits related to DG, the most important of which being the end-user electricity bill reduction capability. However, since the onset of the implementation of these technologies, the potential of DG to defer investments on distribution wires and transformers was soon realized, to the point that 'non-wire solutions' are now considered as an alternative to network upgrades. In this work, a first approximation to the capacity deferral benefits brought about by DG is obtained. Such approach can be the starting point towards the development of a framework of credits to the owners of DG that fully and fairly recognize the deferral benefits provided to the utility. The financial performance of investments on these important technologies can be then improved, thus broadening DG as a viable market alternative for customers and utilities. Index Terms--Distributed generation, economic benefits, investment deferral.

This paper presents an approach for the allocation of transmission network costs by controlling the nodal electricity prices. The proposed approach introduces generation and nodal injection penalties into the traditional economic dispatch so as to create nodal price differences that recover the required transmission revenue from the resulting congestion rent. As a consequence, the new electricity prices reflect not only the marginal costs of production subject to transmission constraints but also the capital costs of the network. This is the approach commonly adopted with most commodities whose price includes the unit cost of the good itself as well as the transportation cost from the production centers to the final consumer. Index Terms--Bilevel programming, congestion rent, economic dispatch (ED), nodal prices, transmission cost allocation (TCA).

This paper deals with the problem of transmission cost allocation (TCA) in very large networks with multiple interconnected regions or countries. The basis of one scheme recently put forward is a single-area TCA algorithm from which inter-regional compensations are computed. One concern about this approach is that an international operator (IO) must have access to detailed information that autonomous regions or countries may not be willing or able to share. This led to the development of a new multiarea TCA scheme, called multiarea decoupled (MAD), in which each region carries out its own TCA, while the IO carries out a region-wise TCA on the network of tie lines. In MAD, the IO does not require detailed and possibly proprietary information about regional networks, relying only on the characteristics of the tie-line network and the extent to which each region uses such a network. This is a key issue, especially in North America, considering FERC's intention to provide Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) with exclusive autonomy to provide transmission service and to set and administer their own transmission-use tariffs. Numerical studies on the proposed scheme are described, including a four-area system based on the IEEE reliability test system (RTS) network. Index Terms--Equivalent bilateral exchange, flow based, multiarea networks, proportional sharing, tie lines, transmission cost allocation (TCA).

This paper presents a novel methodology for allocating the cost of a transmission network to its users based on the principle of equivalent bilateral exchanges, which states that after all physical laws governing the flow of power have been met, each demand is assigned a fraction of each generation and each generator is assigned a fraction of each demand in a uniform manner. Transmission cost allocation based on this principle presents several advantages, namely, independence from the choice of the slack bus, recognition of counter-flows, and transmission use charges that are stable and always positive. Index Terms--Equivalent bilateral exchanges, transmission cost allocation.

A transmission network plays a key role in allowing access to the most efficient generators to all consumers. In most cases, the new transmission projects are defined by a system operator, which focuses on improving the bulk system's reliability and reducing short-term operating problems. Because electricity market participants are prevented from investing in transmission facilities that may benefit them, transmission expansion may not have been sufficient to stimulate competition within the market. In this paper, we show formally through a mathematical formulation based on the Lagrangian relaxation technique that the investment on transmission capacity can be a profitable activity, and therefore, the introduction of competition in the transmission expansion could be possible. Such a competitive expansion of transmission capacity would allow the participants to improve the efficiency of the electricity market. Index Terms--Optimization methods, power transmission economics and planning, pricing.

This paper describes the application of an Improved Genetic Algorithm (IGA) to deal with the solution of the Transmission Network Expansion Planning (TNEP) problem. Genetic Algorithms (GA's) have demonstrated the ability to deal with nonconvex, nonlinear, integer-mixed optimization problems, like the TNEP problem, better than a number of mathematical methodologies. Some special features have been added to the basic Genetic Algorithm (GA) to improve its performance in solving the TNEP problem for three real-life, large-scale transmission systems. Results obtained reveal that GA's represent a promising approach for dealing with such a problem. In this paper, the theoretical issues of GA applied to our problem are emphasized. Index Terms--Genetic algorithms, heuristic algorithms, optimization, transmission network expansion planning.

The article presents a case study of a 69-year-old white woman with fixed drug eruption (FDE) drug reaction after administration with fulvestrant and denosumab for metastatic breast cancer treatment. It notes the patient's medical history including being administered with drugs such as indapamide, atorvastatin, with complaints of multiple erythematous skin lesions.