A push to cycling - Exploring the e-bike’s role in overcoming barriers to bicycle use with a survey and an intervention study

In Norway, as in many countries, there is a political goal to increase bicycle use. The electric bicycle (e-bike) is a promising tool for achieving this goal, given the hilliness of the country. However, little is yet known about the deterrents of cycling in Norway in general, and in particular how the purchase of an e-bike could be stimulated. In the current study, 5500 respondents from a convenience sample among car owners were asked about their perceptions of bicycling in general, and of e-bikes in particular as well as their willingness to pay for an e-bike. Randomly selected participants (N=66) were given access to an e-bike for a limited time (2 or 4 weeks). A second questionnaire captured the same perceptions and willingness to pay post-intervention. Results were compared with a control group (N=214). The results showed that those who cycle the least were most interested in buying an e-bike and that prior knowledge of the e-bike corresponded with a higher desire to buy one. Pro-environmental values did not predict interest in e-bikes, neither did norms and attitudes towards cycling. The willingness to pay for an e-bike increased after having experienced the benefits for those who used an e-bike compared to those who did not. Price reduction of the e-bike (e.g. VAT exemption), spread of knowledge among the wider population, and actions to offer an e-bike experience may therefore be effective strategies for further expansion of the e-bike in the transport system and thereby to increase bicycle use in Norway

What factors affect cross-modal substitution? – evidences from the Oslo area

The vast majority of studies on urban travel demand focus on the effect on the demand of one travel mode given a change in the characteristics of that same transport mode, for example, own-elasticities. comparatively little is known about cross-elasticities of demand. In particular, there is a need for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of modal substitution, that is a better understanding of cross-modal diversion factors (Dfs) defined as the proportion of people who leave mode a and switch to mode b. The purpose of this article is to investigate what factors explain variations in Dfs across transport modes, submarkets and policy measures. using a recently developed empirical travel mode choice model for the Oslo area, we simulate over 10,000 different Dfs by systematically changing the underlying transport modes, submarkets and policies (size, direction and type of change). With descriptive statistics, we show how the Dfs vary on a general level. most results are immediately intuitive, for example that car drivers mostly substitute to walk for short-distance trips but that those Dfs diminish rapidly with increasing distance. Interestingly, we find rather high Dfs across different forms of public transportation. With successive regression analyses we show that the number of available alternatives and relative market shares significantly affect Dfs

Conservation of complete trimethylation of lysine-43 in the rotor ring of c-subunits of metazoan adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthases.

The rotors of ATP synthases turn about 100 times every second. One essential component of the rotor is a ring of hydrophobic c-subunits in the membrane domain of the enzyme. The rotation of these c-rings is driven by a transmembrane proton-motive force, and they turn against a surface provided by another membrane protein, known as subunit a. Together, the rotating c-ring and the static subunit a provide a pathway for protons through the membrane in which the c-ring and subunit a are embedded. Vertebrate and invertebrate c-subunits are well conserved. In the structure of the bovine F1-ATPase-c-ring subcomplex, the 75 amino acid c-subunit is folded into two transmembrane α-helices linked by a short loop. Each bovine rotor-ring consists of eight c-subunits with the N- and C-terminal α-helices forming concentric inner and outer rings, with the loop regions exposed to the phospholipid head-group region on the matrix side of the inner membrane. Lysine-43 is in the loop region and its ε-amino group is completely trimethylated. The role of this modification is unknown. If the trimethylated lysine-43 plays some important role in the functioning, assembly or degradation of the c-ring, it would be expected to persist throughout vertebrates and possibly invertebrates also. Therefore, we have carried out a proteomic analysis of c-subunits across representative species from different classes of vertebrates and from invertebrate phyla. In the twenty-nine metazoan species that have been examined, the complete methylation of lysine-43 is conserved, and it is likely to be conserved throughout the more than two million extant metazoan species. In unicellular eukaryotes and prokaryotes, when the lysine is conserved it is unmethylated, and the stoichiometries of c-subunits vary from 9-15. One possible role for the trimethylated residue is to provide a site for the specific binding of cardiolipin, an essential component of ATP synthases in mitochondria

Organization of Subunits in the Membrane Domain of the Bovine F-ATPase Revealed by Covalent Cross-linking.

The F-ATPase in bovine mitochondria is a membrane-bound complex of about 30 subunits of 18 different kinds. Currently, ∼85% of its structure is known. The enzyme has a membrane extrinsic catalytic domain, and a membrane intrinsic domain where the turning of the enzyme's rotor is generated from the transmembrane proton-motive force. The domains are linked by central and peripheral stalks. The central stalk and a hydrophobic ring of c-subunits in the membrane domain constitute the enzyme's rotor. The external surface of the catalytic domain and membrane subunit a are linked by the peripheral stalk, holding them static relative to the rotor. The membrane domain contains six additional subunits named ATP8, e, f, g, DAPIT (diabetes-associated protein in insulin-sensitive tissues), and 6.8PL (6.8-kDa proteolipid), each with a single predicted transmembrane α-helix, but their orientation and topography are unknown. Mutations in ATP8 uncouple the enzyme and interfere with its assembly, but its roles and the roles of the other five subunits are largely unknown. We have reacted accessible amino groups in the enzyme with bifunctional cross-linking agents and identified the linked residues. Cross-links involving the supernumerary subunits, where the structures are not known, show that the C terminus of ATP8 extends ∼70 Å from the membrane into the peripheral stalk and that the N termini of the other supernumerary subunits are on the same side of the membrane, probably in the mitochondrial matrix. These experiments contribute significantly toward building up a complete structural picture of the F-ATPase.This work was supported by the intramural program of the Medical Research Council (MRC Grant U105663150 (to J. E. W.)

Purification, characterization and crystallization of the F-ATPase from Paracoccus denitrificans.

The structures of F-ATPases have been determined predominantly with mitochondrial enzymes, but hitherto no F-ATPase has been crystallized intact. A high-resolution model of the bovine enzyme built up from separate sub-structures determined by X-ray crystallography contains about 85% of the entire complex, but it lacks a crucial region that provides a transmembrane proton pathway involved in the generation of the rotary mechanism that drives the synthesis of ATP. Here the isolation, characterization and crystallization of an integral F-ATPase complex from the α-proteobacterium Paracoccus denitrificans are described. Unlike many eubacterial F-ATPases, which can both synthesize and hydrolyse ATP, the P. denitrificans enzyme can only carry out the synthetic reaction. The mechanism of inhibition of its ATP hydrolytic activity involves a ζ inhibitor protein, which binds to the catalytic F₁-domain of the enzyme. The complex that has been crystallized, and the crystals themselves, contain the nine core proteins of the complete F-ATPase complex plus the ζ inhibitor protein. The formation of crystals depends upon the presence of bound bacterial cardiolipin and phospholipid molecules; when they were removed, the complex failed to crystallize. The experiments open the way to an atomic structure of an F-ATPase complex.his work was funded by the intramural programme of the Medical Research Council via MRC programme U105663150 to J.E.W., and by support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council to M.J.O.W

O expletivo ele em domínios dependentes em português europeu

Tese de mestrado, Linguística, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2013Esta dissertação tem como objeto de estudo a distribuição do expletivo ele nãopadrão em domínios oracionais dependentes em português europeu. Partindo de uma caracterização do expletivo ele como elemento linguístico relacionado com posições sintáticas na periferia esquerda da frase, a investigação aqui apresentada centra-se sobre a descrição sintática dos contextos dependentes que envolvem este expletivo, a fim de verificar: a posição ocupada por ele na periferia esquerda de domínios oracionais nãomatriz, a ocorrência de simetrias/assimetrias na distribuição e nos efeitos discursivos do expletivo em orações dependentes relativamente às propriedades atribuídas a este expletivo em orações principais. Neste sentido, a presente investigação visa também contribuir para o estudo comparativo da estrutura da periferia esquerda em frases principais e em frases dependentes. A base empírica aqui apresentada incide sobre dados de variedades não-padrão do português europeu recolhidos do Corpus Dialectal para o Estudo da Sintaxe (CORDIAL-SIN), desenvolvido pelo Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa. No plano da distribuição sintática, em orações dependentes, dois tipos de expletivo são distinguidos: o expletivo pré-verbal, que ocorre em posição pré ou pósconector e que pode ser associado a uma projeção ForceP na periferia esquerda da estrutura frásica, ou no domínio da oração dependente ou no domínio matriz de uma oração dependente periférica; pontualmente, o expletivo pós-verbal, que aparece em uma posição mais baixa. A presença do expletivo ele em contextos não-matriz manifesta propriedades discursivas enfáticas relevantes para a codificação de efeitos ilocutórios, em muitos dos exemplos analisados associáveis a domínios dependentes assertivos.Abstract The object of the study in this dissertation consists of the distribution of nonstandard expletive ele in dependent clausal domains in European Portuguese. Based on a characterization of the expletive ele as a linguistic element related to syntactic positions on the left periphery of the sentence, the research presented here focuses on the syntactical description of dependents contexts involving this expletive, in order to examine: the position occupied by ele in left periphery of non matrix clausal domains, the occurrence of symmetry/asymmetry in the distribution and discursive effects of the expletive in dependent clauses regarding the properties attributed to this expletive in main clauses. In this sense, this research also aims to contribute to the comparative study of the left periphery structure in main clauses and dependents phrases. The empirical study presented here focuses on non-standard European Portuguese data collected from the Syntax-oriented Corpus of Portuguese Dialects (CORDIAL-SIN), developed by the Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa. In terms of syntactic distribution, in dependents clauses, two expletive types are distinguished: the preverbal expletive, which occurs in a pre or post-connector position and can be associated with a ForceP projection in the left periphery of the sentence, either in dependents clauses or in the matrix clause domain of a peripheral dependent clause; and, occasionally, a post verbal expletive, which appears in a lower position. The presence of the expletive ele in non-matrix contexts shows discursive properties relevant to codify illocutionary effects, and in many examples it can be associated with assertive dependents domains

Stevin numbers and reality

We explore the potential of Simon Stevin's numbers, obscured by shifting foundational biases and by 19th century developments in the arithmetisation of analysis.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1104.0375, arXiv:1108.2885, arXiv:1108.420

The highly rearranged mitochondrial genomes of the crabs Maja crispata and Maja squinado (Majidae) and gene order evolution in Brachyura

Abstract We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of the spider crabs Maja crispata and Maja squinado (Majidae, Brachyura). Both genomes contain the whole set of 37 genes characteristic of Bilaterian genomes, encoded on both \u3b1- and \u3b2-strands. Both species exhibit the same gene order, which is unique among known animal genomes. In particular, all the genes located on the \u3b2-strand form a single block. This gene order was analysed together with the other nine gene orders known for the Brachyura. Our study confirms that the most widespread gene order (BraGO) represents the plesiomorphic condition for Brachyura and was established at the onset of this clade. All other gene orders are the result of transformational pathways originating from BraGO. The different gene orders exhibit variable levels of genes rearrangements, which involve only tRNAs or all types of genes. Local homoplastic arrangements were identified, while complete gene orders remain unique and represent signatures that can have a diagnostic value. Brachyura appear to be a hot-spot of gene order diversity within the phylum Arthropoda. Our analysis, allowed to track, for the first time, the fully evolutionary pathways producing the Brachyuran gene orders. This goal was achieved by coupling sophisticated bioinformatic tools with phylogenetic analysis

Leibniz's Infinitesimals: Their Fictionality, Their Modern Implementations, And Their Foes From Berkeley To Russell And Beyond

Many historians of the calculus deny significant continuity between infinitesimal calculus of the 17th century and 20th century developments such as Robinson's theory. Robinson's hyperreals, while providing a consistent theory of infinitesimals, require the resources of modern logic; thus many commentators are comfortable denying a historical continuity. A notable exception is Robinson himself, whose identification with the Leibnizian tradition inspired Lakatos, Laugwitz, and others to consider the history of the infinitesimal in a more favorable light. Inspite of his Leibnizian sympathies, Robinson regards Berkeley's criticisms of the infinitesimal calculus as aptly demonstrating the inconsistency of reasoning with historical infinitesimal magnitudes. We argue that Robinson, among others, overestimates the force of Berkeley's criticisms, by underestimating the mathematical and philosophical resources available to Leibniz. Leibniz's infinitesimals are fictions, not logical fictions, as Ishiguro proposed, but rather pure fictions, like imaginaries, which are not eliminable by some syncategorematic paraphrase. We argue that Leibniz's defense of infinitesimals is more firmly grounded than Berkeley's criticism thereof. We show, moreover, that Leibniz's system for differential calculus was free of logical fallacies. Our argument strengthens the conception of modern infinitesimals as a development of Leibniz's strategy of relating inassignable to assignable quantities by means of his transcendental law of homogeneity.Comment: 69 pages, 3 figure