121 research outputs found

    THE MARKET OF INNOVATIONS: FACTORS, INCENTIVES, OBSTACLES AND PERSPECTIVES FOR EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING

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    The incentives and obstacles of effective functioning of the innovations are investigated in the article. It is determined that on the formation of the market and establishment of its equilibrium directly affects a number of system characteristics that established in the institutional environment, including such as: differing vectors of actions of economic (market) and political (political and legal institutes and state) factors of the development of national economy; formation of a “double standard” and various rules of the market game for different classes of participants; negative mutual influence of key institutes, which indicates that the state has no interest in establishing of transparent rules and eliminates the possibility of effective regulation in individual segments. It is offered an author’s understanding of the market of innovations through the prism of institutionalism, the market of innovations is a complete range of social and economic institutions-organizations and joint structures and aims the economic exchange, that includes a common understanding of mutual benefit, the transfer of ownership, “transparent” and fair agreements on proportional sharing. It is proved that institutional factor in some situations that arise in the market is a natural limiter, controller of his freedom. Institute of the market of innovations is under the powerful influence of a number of informal and not always visible institutional the market of innovations. They include intuition of manufacturers, perception the innovations by individuals, feelings, motives of internal motivations of consumer behavior. It is presented institutional structure of the market of innovations according to different levels of economic aggregation in order to obtain an overall vision of institutional design of the market of innovations. This structuring enables better determine with possible mutual influences and relationships between the “players” in the market of innovations

    DICTIONARY OF ECONOMIC TERMS

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    This dictionary is a quality source of information concepts in economics. Here you will find thorough economic terms with its definition in English. Search is in alphabetical order. The Explanatory Dictionary will be targeted mainly for professors, graduate students of economic institutions, entrepreneurs, economists, and also for all those who study economic fundamentals and want to achieve success in this area

    DICTIONARY OF ECONOMIC TERMS

    Get PDF
    This dictionary is a quality source of information concepts in economics. Here you will find thorough economic terms with its definition in English. Search is in alphabetical order. The Explanatory Dictionary will be targeted mainly for professors, graduate students of economic institutions, entrepreneurs, economists, and also for all those who study economic fundamentals and want to achieve success in this area

    Electrochemical Conversion of Biologically Produced Muconic Acid: Key Considerations for Scale-Up and Corresponding Technoeconomic Analysis

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    Muconic acid, an unsaturated diacid that can be produced from cellulosic sugars and lignin monomers by fermentation, emerges as a promising intermediate for the sustainable manufacture of commodity polyamides and polyesters including Nylon-6,6 and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Current conversion schemes consist in the biological production of cis,cis-muconic acid using metabolically engineered yeasts and bacteria, and the subsequent diversification to adipic acid, terephthalic acid, and their derivatives using chemical catalysts. In some instances, conventional precious metal catalysts can be advantageously replaced by base metal electrocatalysts. Here, we show the economic relevance of utilizing a hybrid biological−electrochemical conversion scheme to convert glucose to trans-3-hexenedioic acid (t3HDA), a monomer used for the synthesis of bioadvantaged Nylon-6,6. Potential roadblocks to biological and electrochemical integration in a single reactor, including electrocatalyst deactivation due to biogenic impurities and low faradaic efficiency inherent to side reactions in complex media, have been studied and addressed. In this study, t3HDA was produced with 94% yield and 100% faradaic efficiency. With consideration of the high t3HDA yield and faradaic efficiency, a technoeconomic analysis was developed on the basis of the current yield and titer achieved for muconic acid, the figures of merit defined for industrial electrochemical processes, and the separation of the desired product from the medium. On the basis of this analysis, t3HDA could be produced for approximately $2.00 kg−1. The low cost for t3HDA is a primary factor of the electrochemical route being able to cascade biological catalysis and electrocatalysis in one pot without separation of the muconic acid intermediate from the fermentation broth

    Million-fold sensitivity enhancement in proteopathic seed amplification assays for biospecimens by Hofmeister ion comparisons

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    Recent work with prion diseases and synucleinopathies indicates that accurate diagnostic methods for protein-folding diseases can be based on the ultrasensitive, amplified measurement of pathological aggregates in biospecimens. A better understanding of the physicochemical factors that control the seeded polymerization of such aggregates, and their amplification in vitro, should allow improvements in existing assay platforms, as well as the development of new assays for other proteopathic aggregates. Here, we systematically investigated the effects of the ionic environment on the polymerization of tau, α-synuclein, and the prion protein (PrP) induced by aggregates in biospecimens. We screened salts of the Hofmeister series, a relative ordering of strongly and weakly hydrated salts that tend to precipitate or solubilize proteins. We found that sensitivities of tau-based assays for Alzheimer’s seeds and PrP-based assays for prions were best in weakly hydrated anions. In contrast, we saw an inverse trend with different tau-based assays, improving detection sensitivity for progressive supranuclear palsy seeds by ≈106. Hofmeister analysis also improved detection of sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease prions in human nasal brushings and chronic wasting disease prions in deer-ear homogenates. Our results demonstrate strong and divergent influences of ionic environments on the amplification and detection of proteopathic seeds as biomarkers for protein-folding diseases

    Dissecting CD8+ T cell pathology of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection by single-cell immunoprofiling

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    Introduction: SARS-CoV-2 infection results in varying disease severity, ranging from asymptomatic infection to severe illness. A detailed understanding of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 is critical to unravel the causative factors underlying differences in disease severity and to develop optimal vaccines against new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Methods: We combined single-cell RNA and T cell receptor sequencing with CITE-seq antibodies to characterize the CD8+ T cell response to SARS-CoV-2 infection at high resolution and compared responses between mild and severe COVID-19. Results: We observed increased CD8+ T cell exhaustion in severe SARS-CoV-2 infection and identified a population of NK-like, terminally differentiated CD8+ effector T cells characterized by expression of FCGR3A (encoding CD16). Further characterization of NK-like CD8+ T cells revealed heterogeneity among CD16+ NK-like CD8+ T cells and profound differences in cytotoxicity, exhaustion, and NK-like differentiation between mild and severe disease conditions. Discussion: We propose a model in which differences in the surrounding inflammatory milieu lead to crucial differences in NK-like differentiation of CD8+ effector T cells, ultimately resulting in the appearance of NK-like CD8+ T cell populations of different functionality and pathogenicity. Our in-depth characterization of the CD8+ T cell-mediated response to SARS-CoV-2 infection provides a basis for further investigation of the importance of NK-like CD8+ T cells in COVID-19 severity.</p

    TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME). X. A Two-planet System in the 210 Myr MELANGE-5 Association

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    Young (&lt;500 Myr) planets are critical to studying how planets form and evolve. Among these young planetary systems, multiplanet configurations are particularly useful, as they provide a means to control for variables within a system. Here, we report the discovery and characterization of a young planetary system, TOI-1224. We show that the planet host resides within a young population we denote as MELANGE-5. By employing a range of age-dating methods—isochrone fitting, lithium abundance analysis, gyrochronology, and Gaia excess variability—we estimate the age of MELANGE-5 to be 210 ± 27 Myr. MELANGE-5 is situated in close proximity to previously identified younger (80–110 Myr) associations, Crius 221 and Theia 424/Volans-Carina, motivating further work to map out the group boundaries. In addition to a planet candidate detected by the TESS pipeline and alerted as a TESS object of interest, TOI-1224 b, we identify a second planet, TOI-1224 c, using custom search tools optimized for young stars (Notch and LOCoR). We find that the planets are 2.10 ± 0.09 R⊕ and 2.88 ± 0.10 R⊕ and orbit their host star every 4.18 and 17.95 days, respectively. With their bright (K = 9.1 mag), small (R* = 0.44 R⊙), and cool (Teff = 3326 K) host star, these planets represent excellent candidates for atmospheric characterization with JWST

    TESS hunt for young and maturing exoplanets (THYME). X. A two-planet system in the 210 Myr MELANGE-5 association

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    Funding: P.C.T. was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1650116), the NC Space Grant Graduate Research Fellowship, the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship, and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship. A.W.M. was supported by grants from the NSF CAREER program (AST-2143763) and NASA’s exoplanet research program (XRP 80NSSC21K0393). M.G.B. was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE2040435) and the NC Space Grant Graduate Research Fellowship. F.J.P. acknowledges financial support from the grant CEX2021-001131-S funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/ 501100011033 and through projects PID2019-109522GB-C52 and PID2022-137241NB-C43. This research also received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 803193/BEBOP) and from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; grant No. ST/S00193X/1). The postdoctoral fellowship of K.B. is funded by F.R.S.-FNRS grant T.0109.20 and by the Francqui Foundation. K.A.C. acknowledges support from the TESS mission via subaward s3449 from MIT. M.K. acknowledges support from the MIT Kavli Institute as a Juan Carlos Torres Fellow. This publication benefits from the support of the French Community of Belgium in the context of the FRIA Doctoral Grant awarded to M.T.Young (<500 Myr) planets are critical to studying how planets form and evolve. Among these young planetary systems, multiplanet configurations are particularly useful, as they provide a means to control for variables within a system. Here, we report the discovery and characterization of a young planetary system, TOI-1224. We show that the planet host resides within a young population we denote as MELANGE-5. By employing a range of age-dating methods—isochrone fitting, lithium abundance analysis, gyrochronology, and Gaia excess variability—we estimate the age of MELANGE-5 to be 210 ± 27 Myr. MELANGE-5 is situated in close proximity to previously identified younger (80–110 Myr) associations, Crius 221 and Theia 424/Volans-Carina, motivating further work to map out the group boundaries. In addition to a planet candidate detected by the TESS pipeline and alerted as a TESS object of interest, TOI-1224 b, we identify a second planet, TOI-1224 c, using custom search tools optimized for young stars (Notch and LOCoR). We find that the planets are 2.10 ± 0.09 R⊕ and 2.88 ± 0.10 R⊕ and orbit their host star every 4.18 and 17.95 days, respectively. With their bright (K = 9.1 mag), small (R* = 0.44 R⊙), and cool (Teff = 3326 K) host star, these planets represent excellent candidates for atmospheric characterization with JWST.Peer reviewe

    TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME). X. A Two-planet System in the 210 Myr MELANGE-5 Association

    Get PDF
    Young (&lt;500 Myr) planets are critical to studying how planets form and evolve. Among these young planetary systems, multiplanet configurations are particularly useful, as they provide a means to control for variables within a system. Here, we report the discovery and characterization of a young planetary system, TOI-1224. We show that the planet host resides within a young population we denote as MELANGE-5. By employing a range of age-dating methods—isochrone fitting, lithium abundance analysis, gyrochronology, and Gaia excess variability—we estimate the age of MELANGE-5 to be 210 ± 27 Myr. MELANGE-5 is situated in close proximity to previously identified younger (80–110 Myr) associations, Crius 221 and Theia 424/Volans-Carina, motivating further work to map out the group boundaries. In addition to a planet candidate detected by the TESS pipeline and alerted as a TESS object of interest, TOI-1224 b, we identify a second planet, TOI-1224 c, using custom search tools optimized for young stars (Notch and LOCoR). We find that the planets are 2.10 ± 0.09 R⊕ and 2.88 ± 0.10 R⊕ and orbit their host star every 4.18 and 17.95 days, respectively. With their bright (K = 9.1 mag), small (R* = 0.44 R⊙), and cool (Teff = 3326 K) host star, these planets represent excellent candidates for atmospheric characterization with JWST

    Young children’s screen time during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 12 countries

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    Older children with online schooling requirements, unsurprisingly, were reported to have increased screen time during the frst COVID-19 lockdown in many countries. Here, we ask whether younger children with no similar online schooling requirements also had increased screen time during lockdown. We examined children’s screen time during the frst COVID-19 lockdown in a large cohort (n= 2209) of 8-to-36-month-olds sampled from 15 labs across 12 countries. Caregivers reported that toddlers with no online schooling requirements were exposed to more screen time during lockdown than before lockdown. While this was exacerbated for countries with longer lockdowns, there was no evidence that the increase in screen time during lockdown was associated with socio-demographic variables, such as child age and socio-economic status (SES). However, screen time during lockdown was negatively associated with SES and positively associated with child age, caregiver screen time, and attitudes towards children’s screen time. The results highlight the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on young children’s screen time
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