AGAINST MECHANISM: METHODOLOGY FOR AN EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMICS

When the first economics departments were proposed at Cambridge and Oxford, the proponents thought acceptance would be improved if economics could be seen as incorporating the methods of physics. The enterprise was premised on the existence of economic laws that describe invariant relationships between events. These event regularities, like gravity, were not affected by human action. Humans could adapt and use them, but not change them. Thus the metaphor of "mechanism" seemed appropriate and became embedded in economists' language. It is common to use the term market mechanism to link prices and commodities. This suggests the economy is like turning a crank attached to a set of gears where there is a fixed relationship between the crank's motion and the last gear's motion. The gears have no ideas of their own, they don't get mad; there is no cognitive element between events and action.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

The study of a prokaryotic glycolytic enzyme

The overall objective of this project is to generate novel carbohydrate binding proteins for use in glycoprotein analysis which are amenable to large scale production. The approach used here is the modification of prokaryotic glycolytic enzymes. Their enzymatic activity will be eliminated while hoping they still retain their binding capabilities. These proteins will be immobilized onto different surfaces to generate advanced bioanalytical platforms which will have huge commercial potential in the field of glycoanalysis

Glycolytic enzymes - novel carbohydrate binding proteins for glycoprotein analysis

•The cloning, expression, purification and characterisation of recombinant prokaryotic glycolytic enzymes •The mutagenesis of prokaryotic glycolytic enzymes to generate novel recombinant carbohydrate binding proteins •The characterisation of the binding profile of the novel recombinant carbohydrate binding protein

Lectin based glycoprotein analysis

Many of the biopharmaceutical therapeutics entering the market and currently in clinical trails are recombinant glycoprotein molecules, the glycan moieties of which have a significant impact on efficacy and immunogenicity. The cell culture techniques required to produce these glycoproteins often result in products that are heterogeneous with respect to glycan content. This inconsistency ultimately leads to increased production costs and restricts patient accessibility to these therapeutics. To overcome these difficulties novel analytical platforms facilitating rapid in-process monitoring and product quality control are essential. Work undertaken within the Centre for Bioanalytical Sciences (CBAS) seeks to exploit the microbial world as a source of novel biorecognition elements to produce such platforms

Production of lectin-affinity matrices for process-scale glycoprotein purification

A selection of prokaryotic lectins with a variety of glycan specificities and affinities have been identified, cloned, expressed in Eschericia coli and characterised. The aims of this project are to: - express the lectins at 1L scale to produce sufficient quantities for immobilisation studies (~100 mg) - immobilisethelectinsonSepharose - evaluate lectin performance on column by monitoring their ability toreproducibly capture and elute glycoprotein glycoforms

Exploiting prokaryotic chitin-binding proteins for glycan recognition

• The cloning, expression and characterisation of prokaryotic chitin-binding proteins from Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Photorhabdus luminescens Microfluidics and Photorhabdus asymbiotica • Development of an assay to assess the activity of chitin-binding proteins • Mutagenesis of chitin-binding proteins to alter glycan recognition pattern

VPPA weld model evaluation

NASA uses the Variable Polarity Plasma Arc Welding (VPPAW) process extensively for fabrication of Space Shuttle External Tanks. This welding process has been in use at NASA since the late 1970's but the physics of the process have never been satisfactorily modeled and understood. In an attempt to advance the level of understanding of VPPAW, Dr. Arthur C. Nunes, Jr., (NASA) has developed a mathematical model of the process. The work described in this report evaluated and used two versions (level-0 and level-1) of Dr. Nunes' model, and a model derived by the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) from Dr. Nunes' level-1 model. Two series of VPPAW experiments were done, using over 400 different combinations of welding parameters. Observations were made of VPPAW process behavior as a function of specific welding parameter changes. Data from these weld experiments was used to evaluate and suggest improvements to Dr. Nunes' model. Experimental data and correlations with the model were used to develop a multi-variable control algorithm for use with a future VPPAW controller. This algorithm is designed to control weld widths (both on the crown and root of the weld) based upon the weld parameters, base metal properties, and real-time observation of the crown width. The algorithm exhibited accuracy comparable to that of the weld width measurements for both aluminum and mild steel welds