Energy acquisition and project finance : priorities in the past and nowadays

Project financing is a relatively new, yet special branch of financial instruments. It is an important financial tool for projects that can finance large-scale, strategic investments. High leverage is a preferred form of financing, as it can also be a source of expensive, cost-effective projects. Project investment is considered to be a priority area for energy investment, its strategic importance, its secure return and its stable price. The aim of this study is to examine the development of project financing globally and to the EMEA region, with particular emphasis on energy investments, including trends in recent years.peer-reviewe

Alterações mitocondriais e estresse oxidativo muscular induzidos por um treinamento físico : influencia do exercicio excentrico e da suplementação com acidos graxos Omega-3

Orientador: Lucia Pereira da SilvaTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de BiologiaResumo: Nosso trabalho consistiu em avaliar as alterações no funcionamento e estrutura de mitocôndrias de músculo de ratos (consumo de oxigênio, produção de H2O2 e composição lipídica) em diferentes situações de exercício físico (treinamento intermitente excêntrico ou concêntrico e/ou exercício agudo excêntrico) e após uma suplementação em ácidos graxos Ômega-3. Foram também analisadas as atividades de diferentes enzimas antioxidantes (catalase - CAT, glutationa peroxidase - GPx e superóxido dismutase dependente de manganês ¿ Mn-SOD) e o conteúdo em HSP72 muscular nestas mesmas situações. O treinamento físico excêntrico e concêntrico induziu aumento da atividade de enzimas oxidativas (citrato sintase - CS ou citocromo c oxidase - CCOX) o que também foi observado no consumo de oxigênio por mitocôndrias. Já a produção de H2O2 diminuiu ou tendeu a diminuir dependendo do tipo do treinamento e do substrato utilizado. A atividade das enzimas antioxidantes não foi alterada após os dois tipos de treinamento. Após o exercício agudo excêntrico observou-se também a diminuição na produção de H2O2 de mitocôndrias, porém sem alteração do consumo de oxigênio e com diminuição paralela da atividade da Mn-SOD. Após suplementação em Ômega-3 o funcionamento das mitocôndrias não foi alterado, apenas sua composição lipídica apresentou modificações. Quando a suplementação em Ômega-3 foi associada ao treinamento físico, apenas durante 15 dias, a concentração em proteínas das mitocôndrias apresentou-se 50% menor que nos demais grupos e os parâmetros respiratórios e de produção de H2O2 estavam diminuídos. Concluindo o mecanismo pelo qual a produção de H2O2 foi diminuída parecendo ser diferente após treinamento ou exercício agudo excêntricos. O primeiro parece estar relacionado com o desacoplamento das mitocôndrias e o segundo com a diminuição da atividade da Mn-SOD. A suplementação sozinha não produziu efeitos prejudiciais para o músculo, porém sua associação com uma situação onde a produção de EROS poderia estar elevada, o exercício físico, causou prejuízosAbstract: Dans ce travail nous avons étudié les altérations du fonctionnement des mitochondries de muscles de rats (consommation d¿oxygène, production d¿H2O2 et composition lipidique) dans différentes situations d¿exercice (entraînement et/ou exercice aigu), ainsi qu¿après une supplémentation en acides gras Omega-3. L¿activité des enzymes antioxydants (catalase - CAT, glutathion peroxydase - GPx et superoxyde dismutase mitochondriale ¿ Mn-SOD) et le contenu en HSP72 musculaires étaient aussi évalués. L¿entraînement physique excentrique ou concentrique a induit une augmentation de la capacité oxydative à travers l¿elevation de l¿activité des enzymes oxydantes (citrate synthase - CS et cytochrome c oxydase - CCOX) parallèle à une augmentation de la consommation d¿oxygène. La production d¿H2O2 est diminuée ou tend à diminuer selon l¿entraînement réalisé et le substrat utilisé. L¿activité des enzymes antioxydants n¿était pas changée après les deux entraînements. Après l¿exercice aigu excentrique nous avons aussi observé une diminution de la production d¿H2O2 parallèle à la diminution de l¿activité de la Mn-SOD, cependant sans modification de la consommation d¿oxygène. Dans une autre étude la supplémentation en acides gras Omega- 3 n¿a pas modifié le fonctionnement des mitochondries, seulement leur composition lipidique était modifiée. Après l¿association de la supplémentation en Omega-3 avec l¿entraînement physique, pendant 15 jours, la concentration en protéines était diminuée en 50% par rapport les autres groupes et les paramètres respiratoires et de production d¿H2O2 étaient aussi diminués. En conclusion, le mécanisme par lequel la production d¿H2O2 était diminuée après l¿entraînement et l¿exercice aigu semblerait être différent dans les deux cas. Le premier semble être lié à un léger découplage des mitochondries et le deuxième à la diminution de l¿activité de la Mn-SOD. Dans la deuxième étude, la supplémentation toute seule n¿a pas produit des effets délétères sur le muscle, tandis que son association avec l¿exercice (entraînement), situation ou la production de ROS peut être augmenté, était préjudicielleDoutoradoBioquimicaDoutor em Biologia Funcional e Molecula

Model requirements for Biobank Software Systems

Biobanks are essential tools in diagnostics and therapeutics research and development related to personalized medicine. Several international recommendations, standards and guidelines exist that discuss the legal, ethical, technological, and management requirements of biobanks. Today's biobanks are much more than just collections of biospecimens. They also store a huge amount of data related to biological samples which can be either clinical data or data coming from biochemical experiments. A well-designed biobank software system also provides the possibility of finding associations between stored elements. Modern research biobanks are able to manage multicenter sample collections while fulfilling all requirements of data protection and security. While developing several biobanks and analyzing the data stored in them, our research group recognized the need for a well-organized, easy-to-check requirements guideline that can be used to develop biobank software systems. International best practices along with relevant ICT standards were integrated into a comprehensive guideline: The Model Requirements for the Management of Biological Repositories (BioReq), which covers the full range of activities related to biobank development. The guideline is freely available on the Internet for the research community

Élőállat-nyomonkövetés újszerűlehetÅ‘sége a víziszárnyas-ágazatban

Az RFID egyedjelölési technológia kiépítését megelÅ‘zÅ‘ felmérések elvégzésekor meghatározásra került a jelölés egyedsűrűsége, valamint az RFID alapú egyedjelölési rendszer kiépítése során felmerülÅ‘ költségtényezÅ‘k. A tanulmány alapján megállapítható, hogy pecsenyekacsák esetében az állomány minimum 11-12%-át, hízott kacsáknál minimum 14-15%-át, pecsenyelibáknál minimum 12-13%-át, hízott libáknál minimum 14-15%-át kellene megjelölni a reprezentatív mintaelemszám elérése érdekében. A költségkalkuláció eredményei szerint a jelölés egyedsűrűségének függvényében a bevezetés évében 198-199 Ft többletköltséget jelentene egyedenként a rádiófrekvencián alapuló nyomon követési rendszer bevezetése, a példánkban említett vállalkozás számára. A rendszer bevezetését követÅ‘en viszont már csak egy alacsonyabb pótlási költséggel (4000 Ft/termelési ciklus) kalkulálhat a vállalkozás. Bár többletbefektetést igényel egy ilyen rendszer kiépítése, de a 2011-ben életbe lépÅ‘ Jogszabályban Foglalt Gazdálkodási Követelményeknek (JFGK – „C†csomag) való megfelelést elÅ‘segítené, ha sor kerülne a rádiófrekvencián alapuló azonosítás alkalmazására. ---------------------------------------------------- Prior to installing the RFID bird identification technology, the proportion of poultry to be tagged, as well as the costs of installing the RFID bird identification system were assessed. The paper concludes that to achieve a representative sample, the minimum percentage of animals to be tagged is 11-12% in the event of ducks for roasting, 14-15% for fattened ducks, 12-13% for geese for roasting, and 14-15% for fattened geese. It was calculated that – depending on the proportion of the animal to be tagged – introduction of RFID tracking would cost the company used in the example HUF 198-199 per animal in the initial year. In the subsequent years, however, only a lower replacement cost is incurred (HUF 4000 / production cycle). Although installing a similar system requires extra investment, the application of RFID identification would facilitate compliance with the Statutory Management Requirements (SMR – Package C) that become effective in 2011.víziszárnyas-ágazat, nyomon követhetÅ‘ség, rádiófrekvencián alapuló azonosítás (RFID), aquatic poultry, trackability, radio frequency identification (RFID), Food Security and Poverty, Livestock Production/Industries,

Regional effect on urban atmospheric nucleation

Secondary aerosol particle production via new particle formation (NPF) has been shown to be a major contributor to the global aerosol load. NPF has also been observed frequently in urban environments. Here, we investigate the effect of regional NPF on urban aerosol load under well-defined atmospheric conditions. The Carpathian Basin, the largest orogenic basin in Europe, represents an excellent opportunity for exploring these interactions. Based on long-term observations, we revealed that NPF seen in a central large city of the basin (Budapest) and its regional background occur in a consistent and spatially coherent way as a result of a joint atmospheric phenomenon taking place on large horizontal scales. We found that NPF events at the urban site are usually delayed by > 1 h relative to the rural site or even inhibited above a critical condensational sink level. The urban processes require higher formation rates and growth rates to be realized, by mean factors of 2 and 1.6, respectively, than the regional events. Regional-and urban-type NPF events sometimes occur jointly with multiple onsets, while they often exhibit dynamic and timing properties which are different for these two event types.Peer reviewe

Psychiatric symptoms of patients with primary mitochondrial DNA disorders

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of our study was to assess psychiatric symptoms in patients with genetically proven primary mutation of the mitochondrial DNA.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>19 adults with known mitochondrial mutation (MT) have been assessed with the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire 20-item Disability Index (HAQ-DI), the Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Beck Depression Inventory-Short Form (BDI-SF), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the clinical version of the Structured Clinical Interview for the the DSM-IV (SCID-I and SCID-II) As control, 10 patients with hereditary sensorimotor neuropathy (HN), harboring the peripheral myelin protein-22 (PMP22) mutation were examined with the same tools.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The two groups did not differ significantly in gender, age or education. Mean HAQ-DI score was 0.82 in the MT (range: 0-1.625) and 0.71 in the HN group (range: 0-1.625). Level of disability between the two groups did not differ significantly (<it>p </it>= 0.6076). MT patients scored significantly higher on the BDI-SF and HDRS than HN patients (12.85 versus 4.40, <it>p </it>= 0.031, and 15.62 vs 7.30, <it>p </it>= 0.043, respectively). The Global Severity Index (GSI) of SCL-90-R also showed significant difference (1.44 vs 0.46, <it>p </it>= 0.013) as well as the subscales except for somatization. SCID-I interview yielded a variety of mood disorders in both groups. Eight MT patient (42%) had past, 6 (31%) had current, 5 (26%) had both past and current psychiatric diagnosis, yielding a lifetime prevalence of 9/19 (47%) in the MT group. In the HN group, 3 patients had both past and current diagnosis showing a lifetime prevalence of 3/10 (30%) in this group. SCID-II detected personality disorder in 8 MT cases (42%), yielding 3 avoidant, 2 obsessive-compulsive and 3 personality disorder not otherwise specified (NOS) diagnosis. No personality disorder was identified in the HN group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Clinicians should be aware of the high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in patients with mitochondrial mutation which has both etiologic and therapeutic relevance.</p

Geochemical implications for the magma origin of granitic rocks from the Ditrău Alkaline Massif (Eastern Carpathians, Romania)

In addition to a series of ultramafic to mafic and alkaline igneous rocks, a granite body also occurs in the Ditrău AlkalineMassif, Eastern Carpathians, Romania. We present and discuss mineral chemical data, and major and traceelement compositions of the granites in order to define their nature and origin and to determine the depth of the magmaemplacement. The granites consist of K-feldspar, albite to oligoclase and quartz accompanied by Ti-rich annite± calcic amphiboles. Depending on the amphibole content they are classified as less fractionated amphibole-bearingand amphibole-free varieties. Accessories include zircon, apatite, magnetite, ilmenite, and allanite or monazite.High Zr, Nb, Ga, Ce and Y content and Ga/Al and Fe/Mg ratios, together with low CaO, Sr and Ba contents and Y/Nbratios of 0.04-0.88 are consistent with A1-type granites and mantle differentiates correspond to an intra-plate environment.The Ditrău Alkaline Massif granites were emplaced at middle – upper crustal levels between 14 and 4 km depthas indicated by the calculated crystallization pressure of 370 ± 40 MPa and the stability limit of calcic amphiboles. </p