Macroeconomic shocks across Central European Countries

The purpose of the research was to investigate the transmission mechanism of macroeconomic shocks across EU countries and CECs. It was expected that the findings would allow to verify the following hypotheses.If it turns out that macroeconomic shocks can be transmitted from the EU to Central European countries (CECs) rather than in opposite way,one should not be afraid that asymmetric shocks across CECs will destabilise the European integration. Moreover,if the size of shocks to EU countries is much smaller than to CECs, this would suggest that the integration process creates mechanisms which limit the extent of the disturbances in output.Therefore, the access of CECs to EU is likely to accelerate reducing the size of shocks.The research was based on VAR models,to which Granger non-causality tests, deletion tests, variance decompositions were applied.

Carleman estimate and application to an inverse source problem for a viscoelasticity model in anisotropic case

We consider an anisotropic hyperbolic equation with memory term: ∂t2u(x,t)=∑i,j=1n∂i(aij(x)∂ju)+∫0t∑|α|≤2bα(x,t,η)∂xαu(x,η)dη+R(x,t)f(x) for $x \in \Omega$ and $t\in (0, T)$ , which is a simplified model equation for viscoelasticity. The main result is a both-sided Lipschitz stability estimate for an inverse source problem of determining a spatial varying factor $f(x)$ of the force term $R(x, t)\,f(x)$ . The proof is based on a Carleman estimate and due to the anisotropy, the existing transformation technique does not work and we introduce a new transformation of u in order to treat the integral terms

A Single-Stage LED Driver Based on ZCDS Class-E Current-Driven Rectifier as a PFC for Street-Lighting Applications

This paper presents a light-emitting diode (LED) driver for street-lighting applications that uses a resonant rectifier as a power-factor corrector (PFC). The PFC semistage is based on a zero-current and zero-derivative-switching (ZCDS) Class-E current-driven rectifier, and the LED driver semistage is based on a zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) Class-D LLC resonant converter that is integrated into a single-stage topology. To increase the conduction angle of the bridge-rectifier diodes current and to decrease the current harmonics that are injected in the utility line, the ZCDS Class-E rectifier is placed between the bridge-rectifier and a dc-link capacitor. The ZCDS Class-E rectifieris driven by a high-frequency current source, which is obtained from a square-wave output voltage of the ZVS Class-D LLC resonant converter using a matching network. Additionally, the proposed converter has a soft-switching characteristic that reduces switching losses and switching noise. A prototype for a 150-W LED street light has been developed and tested to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The proposed LED driver had a high efficiency (>91%), a high PF (>0.99), and a low total harmonic distortion (THD i <; 8%) under variation of the utility-line input voltage from 180 to 250 V rms . These experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed LED scheme

Degradation of contaminants of emerging concern by UV/H2O2 for water reuse: Kinetics, mechanisms, and cytotoxicity analysis.

Advanced oxidation using UV and hydrogen peroxide (UV/H2O2) has been widely applied to degrade contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in wastewater for water reuse. This study investigated the degradation kinetics of mixed CECs by UV/H2O2 under variable H2O2 doses, including bisphenol A, estrone, diclofenac, ibuprofen, and triclosan. Reverse osmosis (RO) treated water samples from Orange County Water District's Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) potable reuse project were collected on different dates and utilized as reaction matrices with spiked additions of chemicals (CECs and H2O2) to assess the application of UV/H2O2. Possible degradation pathways of selected CECs were proposed based on high resolution mass spectrometry identification of transformation products (TPs). Toxicity assessments included cytotoxicity, aryl hydrocarbon receptor-binding activity, and estrogen receptor-binding activity, in order to evaluate potential environmental impacts resulting from CEC degradation by UV/H2O2. Cytotoxicity and estrogenic activity were significantly reduced during the degradation of mixed CECs in Milli-Q water by UV/H2O2 with high UV fluence (3200 mJ cm-2). However, in GWRS RO-treated water samples collected in April 2017, the cytotoxicity and estrogen activity of spiked CEC-mixture after UV/H2O2 treatment were not significantly eliminated; this might be due to the high concentration of target CEC and their TPs, which was possibly affected by the varied quality of the secondary treatment influent at this facility such as sewer-shed and wastewater discharges. This study aimed to provide insight on the impacts of post-UV/H2O2 CECs and TPs on human and ecological health at cellular level

Discovery of Molecular Markers to Discriminate Corneal Endothelial Cells in the Human Body

The corneal endothelium is a monolayer of hexagonal corneal endothelial cells (CECs) on the inner surface of the cornea. CECs are critical in maintaining corneal transparency through their barrier and pump functions. CECs in vivo have a limited capacity in proliferation, and loss of a significant number of CECs results in corneal edema called bullous keratopathy which can lead to severe visual loss. Corneal transplantation is the most effective method to treat corneal endothelial dysfunction, where it suffers from donor shortage. Therefore, regeneration of CECs from other cell types attracts increasing interests, and specific markers of CECs are crucial to identify actual CECs. However, the currently used markers are far from satisfactory because of their non-specific expression in other cell types. Here, we explored molecular markers to discriminate CECs from other cell types in the human body by integrating the published RNA-seq data of CECs and the FANTOM5 atlas representing diverse range of cell types based on expression patterns. We identified five genes, CLRN1, MRGPRX3, HTR1D, GRIP1 and ZP4 as novel markers of CECs, and the specificities of these genes were successfully confirmed by independent experiments at both the RNA and protein levels. Notably none of them have been documented in the context of CEC function. These markers could be useful for the purification of actual CECs, and also available for the evaluation of the products derived from other cell types. Our results demonstrate an effective approach to identify molecular markers for CECs and open the door for the regeneration of CECs in vitro

Out-of-plane instability and electron-phonon contribution to s- and d-wave pairing in high-temperature superconductors; LDA linear-response calculation for doped CaCuO2 and a generic tight-binding model

The equilibrium structure, energy bands, phonon dispersions, and s- and d-channel electron-phonon interactions (EPIs) are calculated for the infinite-layer superconductor CaCuO2 doped with 0.24 holes per CuO2. The LDA and the linear-response full-potential LMTO method were used. In the equilibrium structure, oxygen is found to buckle slightly out of the plane and, as a result, the characters of the energy bands near EF are found to be similar to those of other optimally doped HTSCs. For the EPI we find lambda(s)=0.4, in accord with previous LDA calculations for YBa2Cu3O7. This supports the common belief that the EPI mechanism alone is insufficient to explain HTSC. Lambda(x^2-y^2) is found to be positive and nearly as large as lambda(s). This is surprising and indicates that the EPI could enhance some other d-wave pairing mechanism. Like in YBa2Cu3O7, the buckling modes contribute significantly to the EPI, although these contributions are proportional to the static buckling and would vanish for flat planes. These numerical results can be understood from a generic tight-binding model originally derived from the LDA bands of YBa2Cu3O7. In the future, the role of anharmonicity of the buckling-modes and the influence of the spin-fluctuations should be investigated.Comment: 19 pages, 9 Postscript figures, Late

An economic assessment of the accession of the Central and Eastern European countries to the EU single market

In 2004 the European Union is due to incorporate 10 new members, mostly from theCentral and Eastern European Countries (CECs). Trade between the EU and CECs currently falls well short of that between EU countries, and if we assume this pattern reflects both tariffs and a resource cost due to regulatory differences, then 1997 trade patterns would imply such costs are 7-15% on trade between the EU and CECs. Elimination/harmonisation of remaining tariffs is likely to bring small welfare gains to new entrants. By contrast entry to the Single Market looks far more significant: after both tariff union and entry to the Single Market total trade volumes between the EU and CECs could rise by 50-100% (much more in some commodities), while welfare gains in the CECs could be of the order of 11.5-20%, larger than the previous two studies have suggested. Welfare gains within the EU are around 0.4% of GDP, with all regions gaining but Germany gaining most. Gains are greater where capital is fully mobile

Vacuum solutions with nontrivial boundaries for the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory

The classification of certain class of static solutions for the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory in vacuum is presented. The spacelike section of the class of metrics under consideration is a warped product of the real line with a nontrivial base manifold. For arbitrary values of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling, the base manifold must be Einstein with an additional scalar restriction. The geometry of the boundary can be relaxed only when the Gauss-Bonnet coupling is related with the cosmological and Newton constants, so that the theory admits a unique maximally symmetric solution. This additional freedom in the boundary metric allows the existence of three main branches of geometries in the bulk, containing new black holes and wormholes in vacuum.Comment: Prepared for the proceedings of the 7th Alexander Friedmann International Seminar on Gravitation and Cosmology, July 2008, Joao Pessoa, Brasil. 4 pages, References adde