7,104 research outputs found
An evolutionary perspective on the kinome of malaria parasites
Malaria parasites belong to an ancient lineage that diverged very early from the main branch of eukaryotes. The approximately 90-member plasmodial kinome includes a majority of eukaryotic protein kinases that clearly cluster within the AGC, CMGC, TKL, CaMK and CK1 groups found in yeast, plants and mammals, testifying to the ancient ancestry of these families. However, several hundred millions years of independent evolution, and the specific pressures brought about by first a photosynthetic and then a parasitic lifestyle, led to the emergence of unique features in the plasmodial kinome. These include taxon-restricted kinase families, and unique peculiarities of individual enzymes even when they have homologues in other eukaryotes. Here, we merge essential aspects of all three malaria-related communications that were presented at the Evolution of Protein Phosphorylation meeting, and propose an integrated discussion of the specific features of the parasite's kinome and phosphoproteome
A market inventory of construction wood for residential building in Europe – in the light of the Green Deal and new circular economy ambitions
Wood is an energy efficient, low carbon construction material that if carefully managed can contribute significantly to European climate policy goals in urban environments. The aim of this study is to assess the current construction wood use intensity the ratio of apparent national consumption of wood for construction (in m3) to the useful floor area of newly finished dwellings (in m2) and to identify when and where additional policy measures are required. Results show that Cyprus/Malta have the smallest use with a ratio of 0.01, Estonia/Romania the greatest use with a ratio of 0.32. The need for additional policy measures, was assessed using the Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) matrix with four product development phases, based on the aforementioned ratio versus future growth. Six, twelve, eight and two countries are in the “Introduction“, “Growth”, ”Maturity” and “Decline” phases, respectively. At the EU level, the European Commission should consider introducing a Renewable Material Directive, in which a Non-biogenic Material Comparator shows the average GHG substitution effect of using wood for construction. At the international level, a new harvested wood product (HWP) category in the IPCC Guidelines is recommended for construction wood with a longer lifespan than the current HWP categories
Electronic structure and magnetic state of transuranium metals under pressure
Electronic structure of bcc Np, fcc Pu, Am, and Cm pure metals under pressure
has been investigated employing the LDA+U method with spin-orbit coupling
(LDA+U+SO). Magnetic state of the actinide ions was analyzed in both LS and jj
coupling schemes to reveal the applicability of corresponding coupling bases.
It was demonstrated that whereas Pu and Am are well described within the jj
coupling scheme, Np and Cm can be described appropriately neither in {m-sigma},
nor in {jmj} basis, due to intermediate coupling scheme realizing in these
metals that requires some finer treatment. The LDA+U+SO results for the
considered transuranium metals reveal bands broadening and gradual 5f electron
delocalization under pressure.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Financial Transaction Tax: Small is Beautiful
The case for taxing financial transactions merely to raise more revenues from the financial sector is not particularly strong. Better alternatives to tax the financial sector are likely to be available. However, a tax on financial transactions could be justified in order to limit socially
undesirable transactions when more direct means of doing so are unavailable for political or
practical reasons. Some financial transactions are indeed likely to do more harm than good,
especially when they contribute to the systemic risk of the financial system. However, such a
financial transaction tax should be very small, much smaller than the negative externalities in
question, because it is a blunt instrument that also drives out socially useful transactions.
There is a case for taxing over-the-counter derivative transactions at a somewhat higher rate
than exchange-based derivative transactions. More targeted remedies to drive out socially
undesirable transactions should be sought in parallel, which would allow, after their
implementation, to reduce or even phase out financialtransaction taxes
Current-voltage characteristics of quasi-one-dimensional superconductors: An S-curve in the constant voltage regime
Applying a constant voltage to superconducting nanowires we find that its
IV-characteristic exhibits an unusual S-behavior. This behavior is the direct
consequence of the dynamics of the superconducting condensate and of the
existence of two different critical currents: j_{c2} at which the pure
superconducting state becomes unstable and j_{c1}<j_{c2} at which the phase
slip state is realized in the system.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, replaced with minor change
Testing Magnetic Field Models for the Class 0 Protostar L1527
For the Class 0 protostar, L1527, we compare 131 polarization vectors from
SCUPOL/JCMT, SHARP/CSO and TADPOL/CARMA observations with the corresponding
model polarization vectors of four ideal-MHD, non-turbulent, cloud core
collapse models. These four models differ by their initial magnetic fields
before collapse; two initially have aligned fields (strong and weak) and two
initially have orthogonal fields (strong and weak) with respect to the rotation
axis of the L1527 core. Only the initial weak orthogonal field model produces
the observed circumstellar disk within L1527. This is a characteristic of
nearly all ideal-MHD, non-turbulent, core collapse models. In this paper we
test whether this weak orthogonal model also has the best agreement between its
magnetic field structure and that inferred from the polarimetry observations of
L1527. We found that this is not the case; based on the polarimetry
observations the most favored model of the four is the weak aligned model.
However, this model does not produce a circumstellar disk, so our result
implies that a non-turbulent, ideal-MHD global collapse model probably does not
represent the core collapse that has occurred in L1527. Our study also
illustrates the importance of using polarization vectors covering a large area
of a cloud core to determine the initial magnetic field orientation before
collapse; the inner core magnetic field structure can be highly altered by a
collapse and so measurements from this region alone can give unreliable
estimates of the initial field configuration before collapse.Comment: 43 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables. Accepted by the Astrophysical Journa
Evaluating Greek equity funds using data envelopment analysis
This study assesses the relative performance of Greek equity funds employing a non-parametric method, specifically Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Using an original sample of cost and operational attributes we explore the e¤ect of each variable on funds' operational efficiency for an oligopolistic and bank-dominated fund industry. Our results have significant implications for the investors' fund selection process since we are able to identify potential sources of inefficiencies for the funds. The most striking result is that the percentage of assets under management affects performance negatively, a conclusion which may be related to the structure of the domestic stock market. Furthermore, we provide evidence against the notion of funds' mean-variance efficiency
High‐efficiency Al0.22Ga0.78As solar cells grown by molecular beam epitaxy
The quality of pn junction photodetectors made of Al0.2Ga0.8As has been investigated as a first step in the optimization of tandem solar cells. We have obtained 1 sun AM1.5 efficiencies of 16.1% for 0.25 cm2 Al0.22Ga0.78As solar cellsfabricated from molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) material. This efficiency is 3.2 percentage points higher than the previously best reported efficiency of 12.9% for an Al0.2Ga0.8As solar cell fabricated from MBE material
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