The ECJ Judgment on the Extensions of the ETS to Aviation: An Economist's Discontent
Few EU decisions have caused more international outcry than the extension of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to apply to aviation. The directive was legally challenged by US airlines before a UK court, which referred the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling concerning the compatibility of the directive with international law. This paper discusses the argumentation by the ECJ and the Advocate General from an economic perspective. Such an analysis is warranted in light of the fact that the contested measure is an economic regulation, the international laws that are invoked have clear economic objectives, and the ECJ judgment and the opinion by the Advocate General at least partly rely on economic concepts and mechanisms. An economic analysis also seems warranted from a legal point of view since the quality of the judgment and of the opinion presumably depend on the soundness of their economic reasoning. It is found that the argumentation by the legal authorities is highly questionable in important parts, when viewed from an economic perspective.
Aviation and climate change
We describe the current status of knowledge regarding the contribution of aviation to anthropogenic climate forcing. The emissions and associated radiative forcings from aviation are compared to those from other modes of transport. The different analytical metrics used to quantify climate forcing are presented showing their relevancies and uncertainties. The discussion then focuses on the use of radiative forcing, one of the most commonly used metric, in accounting for the climate change contribution from aviation with a particular look at how the contribution from CO2 and non-CO2 greenhouse gases can be compared.
Comparative study of in vitro flow characteristics between a human aortic valve and a designed aortic valve and six corresponding types of prosthetic heart valves.
A model of a pulsatile cardiovascular system is described including an electronic control, a hydraulic driving unit, a volume storage, a peripheral resistance and measuring equipment. Six different artificial heart valves, a designed aortic valve (Aachen pockett valve II) and a human aortic valve have been tested in the outflow position of the pump. Three of them are presently being used in clinical applications. Measurements of pressure and volume flow have been obtained for different frequencies n, pump volumes Vp and time ratios between pressure and suction phase. From the experimental results a comparative evaluation was deducted for different working conditions. In comparison to natural human aortic valve (NK) large volume flow is verified by the Aachen pocket valve II (AT), the Gott-Dagget value (GD), the Starr-Edwards valve (SE) and the Lillehei-Kaster valve (LK). The Gott-Daggett valve has the smallest back flow volume. The Smeloff-Cutter and in particular the Wada-Cutter valve have the largest regurgitation. This is to be expected since the Cutter valves are purposely so designed that they do not close tightly in order to avoid blood sedimentation. The human aortic valve, the Gott-Daggett valve and the Aachen pocket valve demonstrate the most favourable opening-closing characteristics. The human aortic valve achieves a negligible pressure loss, followed by the Björk-Shiley and the Lillehei-Kaster valve.