Search

Many South East European countries have high biomass potentials, but they are often not or only ineffi-ciently used for local energy supply and regional economic development. The objective of the BioVill project, funded by the EU´s Horizon2020 programme, is to support the development of regional bioenergy concepts and the establish-ment of “Bioenergy Villages” in Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. This will be achieved by identi-fying suitable biomass value chains according to local and regional needs and transferring existing experiences in Aus-tria, Germany and other European countries to the South-Eastern European partners. Thereby the market uptake of domestic bioenergy supply chains will be increased and the role of locally produced biomass as a main source of energy supply and added value for the local and regional economy will be strengthened. The present paper introduces the project´s step-wise approach and presents its intermediate results and achievements, followed by a section addressing the transfer process, a core element of the project.

The economic and societal challenges related to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and establishing a bioeconomy are considerable, and it is necessary to gain a clear view of how a transformation can be accomplished. There is currently little knowledge on the feasibility and implications of such a transformation on a national level and the possible contribution of domestic biomass resources. In this work, a modeling approach for developing integrated transformation scenarios is presented. It is implemented in the optimization environment TIMES and comprises a complete representation of the Austrian energy system, the forest sector, agricultural land use and production, the livestock sector, food supply and demand. The model is basically intended to represent all relevant material and energy flows between these sectors. The core objective is to develop integrated scenarios and identify efficient GHG mitigation options. This paper presents exemplary simulation results for the case of Austria, developed with a preliminary model version. Besides a Reference scenario (RS), the following alternative scenarios (AS) are presented: AS1 AgriBioenergy is based on the assumptions of high yield increases and other measures to increase agricultural bioenergy production. It shows a development where large shares of arable land become available for energy crop production or short rotation plantations. AS2 ForestBioenergy illustrates that the net GHG effect of increased wood removals from forests for the purpose of energy production is initially negative, as carbon stocks become lower than in the RS. Only after about three decades, the net GHG effect becomes positive in this scenario. AS3 MaterialSubstitution illustrates that substituting carbon-intensive materials with long-lived wood products is a highly efficient way of GHG mitigation., Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 1407-1415

The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of ventricular late potentials derived from signal-averaged ECG in patients with IDDM with and without diabetic neuropathy. Eighty patients with IDDM but without evidence of cardiac disease and 80 age-matched healthy control subjects were investigated. The corrected QT interval was measured from the standard surface electrocardiogram. Ventricular late potentials were derived from signal-averaged electrocardiogram. Out of the 80 diabetic patients, 20 had an autonomic neuropathy, 20 had an isolated peripheral neuropathy, and 40 had no symptoms of neuropathy. The corrected QT interval was significantly prolonged in patients with an autonomic neuropathy as compared with the control group (436 +/- 23 ms(x 5) vs 384 +/- 23 ms(x 5), p < 0.001). In the other patient groups there was no significant prolongation of the corrected QT interval. Ventricular late potentials were present in 3 diabetic patients with an isolated peripheral neuropathy and in 1 control subject (NS). No diabetic patient with an autonomic neuropathy had ventricular late potentials. Our data did not indicate an increased incidence of ventricular late potentials derived from signal-averaged electrocardiogram in diabetic patients independent of a coexisting diabetic neuropathy or a prolonged corrected QT interval.

A total of 79 patients with mitral regurgitation (age 62 +/- 11 years, 45 men, 34 women) quantified by angiography was studied using color-Doppler imaging of isovelocity surface areas in the flow convergence region proximal to the regurgitant orifice (PISAs), of the jet cross-section at the level of the regurgitant orifice and of the regurgitant jet in the left atrium. The PISA-radii for the flow velocities (aliasing borders) of 28 and 41 cm/s, the cross-sectional jet area and the jet length, and relation of jet area to left atrial area were measured. The sensitivity for the detection of mitral regurgitation was at least 97% for the color-Doppler methods investigated in these patients in which a sufficient imaging was obtained. However, a sufficient imaging of the flow convergence region and the jet cross-section was not possible in about 5% of all patients. The PISA-radii for both flow velocities and the cross-sectional jet area correlated more closely with the angiographic grade (rSp = 0.79-0.80, p0.001) than the jet area (rSp = 0.39, p0.001), jet length (rSp = 0.37, p0.001), and relation of jet area to left atrial area (rSp = 0.31, p0.01) did. A correct differentiation of grades I to II from grades III to IV mitral regurgitation was provided in 93-95% of patients by the proximal flow convergence and by the cross-sectional jet area method and, at most, in 76% of the patients by the jet area method using the uncorrected jet area.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty by balloon dilatation (PTCA) has proved to be the standard procedure for non-operative removal of coronary artery stenoses. Since the initial description and application by Andreas Grüntzig, the results of this procedure are excellent with an acute success rate of 90-96%, a rate of severe acute complications of 1% and less, and a procedure-related death rate below 1%, mainly due to considerable technical improvements and greater experience of the interventional cardiologists. On the other hand, the restenosis rate following PTCA could not be significantly lowered. In recent years a number of alternative angioplasty devices has been developed aimed at-among other indications-reducing the restenosis rate following PTCA by a "less traumatic" vessel angioplasty. These include radiofrequency angioplasty (RFCA), high frequency rotational angioplasty (HFRCA), excimer-laser angioplasty (ELCA), directional atherectomy (DCA), as well as implantation of intravascular stents. Based on more or less extensive experiences from the literature, the aim at lowering the recurrency rate by the latter procedures has been missed, despite the fact that particularly ELCA and HFRCA were used to reduce stenoses in lesions unsuitable for balloon catheter dilatation. There is a trend of lowering the recurrence rate with the implantation of coronary stents. The benefit of this procedure, however, is at the expense of an increased rate of acute stent thrombosis and by local acute bleeding problems quite often requiring surgical repair. The cellular biological mechanisms following balloon angioplasty are only partially understood. Among these are a number of interactive processes like cell adhesion, coagulation, vascular contraction, cell migration, cell proliferation, and synthesis of extracellular matrix. In this respect, migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells represent a key process for the development of restenosis. In addition, endothelial denudation represents a stimulus for migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells. Rapid and efficient reendothelialization may counteract this process. Recent progress of modern biology has provided new concepts and methodological tools for the molecular analysis of vascular remodeling. It has been shown that specialized cellular functions such as proliferation, migration, and production of extracellular matrix can be mediated by growth factors such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) or transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)