Struggle for Nanotechnological Leadership: the USA, EU, China, Russia

Russia's policy in the sphere of nanotechnology is compared with similar policies in the USA, EU and China. Influence of industrial structure on financing of R&D is shown. It is proved that modernization of the Russian manufacturing under the current long wave is the basic factor for successful participation of this country in the struggle for nanotechnological leadership.Nanotechnology, long waves, import of technologies, coordination trap

Territorial structure of the denominational space of the South-East Baltic

The South-East Baltic is a meeting place of three branches of Christianity: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Lutheranism. Dominant in the Baltic region, these religious confessions define the cultural landscape of the area. At the same time, they have an indirect effect on socio-economic development. In this study, we aim to identify the main components of the territorial structure and the formation and transformation factors of the denominational space in the South-East Baltic. The complexity of the denominational structure of the local population stems from the centuries-long position of this region as a political buffer zone. We calculate the potential denominational structure and the potential religious fractionalisation index at the level of basic territorial units and regions southeast of the Baltic Sea. Based on this, we identify the main components of the territorial structure of the denominational space, which includes three denominational shields and contact zones between them. From a practical viewpoint, these components suggest a new variant of the territorial differentiation of the Baltic region. This variant has only limited relevance to ethnic and socioeconomic zoning

Analysis of pump station control systems

Systematization and comparative analysis of circuit solutions of pump station control systems has been carried out. The main features at operation of various control systems of the automated stations are presented. The criteria for selection of the efficient configurations of control systems are formulated

State Corporations and Structural Changes in the Economy

The article focuses attention on a possible contribution of the state corporations to long-term results of economic development. It is shown that such corporations can make the significant contribution to ensuring dynamic efficiency of economy, to implementation of structural shifts in production. The role of the state corporations in formation of the infrastructure necessary for wide use of essentially new technologies is analyzed

The front-end design of cinema poster control system of the republic of Belarus

The subject of development is cinema poster control system of the Republic of Belarus. The purpose of the work is creating a system for convenient management of cinema poster of the Republic of Belarus. In the article issues connected with a process of control system front-end design are considered

The pesticidal Cry6Aa toxin from Bacillus thuringiensis is structurally similar to HlyE-family alpha pore-forming toxins

BACKGROUND: The Cry6 family of proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis represents a group of powerful toxins with great potential for use in the control of coleopteran insects and of nematode parasites of importance to agriculture. These proteins are unrelated to other insecticidal toxins at the level of their primary sequences and the structure and function of these proteins has been poorly studied to date. This has inhibited our understanding of these toxins and their mode of action, along with our ability to manipulate the proteins to alter their activity to our advantage. To increase our understanding of their mode of action and to facilitate further development of these proteins we have determined the structure of Cry6Aa in protoxin and trypsin-activated forms and demonstrated a pore-forming mechanism of action. RESULTS: The two forms of the toxin were resolved to 2.7 A and 2.0 A respectively and showed very similar structures. Cry6Aa shows structural homology to a known class of pore-forming toxins including hemolysin E from Escherichia coli and two Bacillus cereus proteins: the hemolytic toxin HblB and the NheA component of the non-hemolytic toxin (pfam05791). Cry6Aa also shows atypical features compared to other members of this family, including internal repeat sequences and small loop regions within major alpha helices. Trypsin processing was found to result in the loss of some internal sequences while the C-terminal region remains disulfide-linked to the main core of the toxin. Based on the structural similarity of Cry6Aa to other toxins, the mechanism of action of the toxin was probed and its ability to form pores in vivo in Caenorhabditis elegans was demonstrated. A non-toxic mutant was also produced, consistent with the proposed pore-forming mode of action. CONCLUSIONS: Cry6 proteins are members of the alpha helical pore-forming toxins - a structural class not previously recognized among the Cry toxins of B. thuringiensis and representing a new paradigm for nematocidal and insecticidal proteins. Elucidation of both the structure and the pore-forming mechanism of action of Cry6Aa now opens the way to more detailed analysis of toxin specificity and the development of new toxin variants with novel activities

Modeling of radiative - conductive heat transfer in compositing materials

A layer of composite material is investigated, which is heated one-sidedly with one-dimensional energy transfer accounting for thermal conductivity and radiation. A mathematical model is suggested for non-stationary coefficient thermophysical problem under radiative-conductive heat transfer in a material layer. Temperature dependencies of thermal capacity and thermal conductivity coefficient of composite radio-transparent material have been determined through numerical modeling by solving the coefficient reverse problem of thermal conductivity

Interannual and seasonal variability of atmospheric inhomogeneities from satellite systems data and it's correlation with atmosphere monitoring

© 2016 SPIE.In this paper we presented results long-term experimental study of atmosphere remote sensing by GPS-GLONASS signals and simultaneous near surface atmospheric parameters measurements in Kazan city. During the period of 2010 - 2012. The interannual and seasonal variability of the radiovawes zenith tropospheric delay structure functions was analyzed. The correlation coefficient of the of the time structure function decimeter radio waves zenith tropospheric delay power approximation with surface temperature reaches a value of 0.73 for the fluctuations with time scales up to 8 hours. According to the results it can be assume a strong influence of the synoptic processes and the underlying surface on the formation of mesoscale fluctuations in the satellite navigation systems phase path

Wave Energy: a Pacific Perspective

This is the author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by The Royal Society and can be found at: http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/.This paper illustrates the status of wave energy development in Pacific Rim countries by characterizing the available resource and introducing the region‟s current and potential future leaders in wave energy converter development. It also describes the existing licensing and permitting process as well as potential environmental concerns. Capabilities of Pacific Ocean testing facilities are described in addition to the region‟s vision of the future of wave energy