AGRICULTURAL INTERSECTORAL LINKAGES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The transition from communism to capitalism at the end of the last century was one of the most significant events in the world economy since industrialization. During the latter part of the 1980s, people the Central and Eastern European countries and former Soviet Republics opted for a change from highly distorted command economic system to a market driven economic system. Privatization and liberalization policies led to major changes in the commodity mix and volume of agricultural production, consumption and trade. However, the changes and the impacts varied among countries as they followed different transition strategies. This study investigated the impact of market liberalization on the agricultural sector, as well as how the inter-sectoral linkages among the agricultural, industrial and service sectors responded in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary using time-series analysis. The study estimated an econometric model that incorporates the linkages among the sectors using a Vector Error Correction Model. The procedure identified long-run and short-run relationships for each country. The results showed that a sector can have a negative linkage to other sectors in the short-run; however, that does not mean that the linkage will be negative in the long-run. Impulse response functions were constructed to determine how a system reacts to a shock in one of the endogenous variable in a model. The study explored how a shock in the agricultural sector was absorbed by the other sectors in the economy, and how a shock in the other sectors was absorbed by the agricultural sector, in all four countries. The responses reflected how the variables are interrelated within a country, and how the shocks are transferred through different linkages over a long period of time. Such dynamic analysis was used to identify the total impacts of different policy alternatives

Design and development of the Sunswift eVe solar vehicle: world\u27s fastest long-range electric car

The Sunswift project of the University of New South Wales, Australia, exists to provide university students with a multi-disciplinary engineering challenge, enhancing the true educational value of their degree with a unique hands-on real-world experience of creating solar–electric hybrid vehicles. The design and development of the low-drag ‘solar supercar’ Sunswift eVe car are described here, detailing the student-led process from initial concept sketches to the completed performance vehicle. eVe was designed to demonstrate the potential of effective solar integration into a practical passenger-carrying vehicle. It is a two-seater vehicle with an on-body solar array area of 4 m2 and a battery capacity of 16 kW h, which is capable of sustained speeds over 130 km/h and a single-charge range of over 800 km. Carbon fiber was used extensively, and the components were almost all designed, built, and tested by students with industry and academic mentorship. The eVe project was initiated in mid-2012, and the car competed in the 2013 World Solar Challenge, taking class line honours. It subsequently set a Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile land speed record in 2014 for the fastest average speed of an electric vehicle over 500 km; it is now the team’s intent to develop the car to road-legal status

Entwicklung und Optimierung von mikro- und nanopartikulären Katalysatoren mit Perowskitstruktur für den Einsatz in Zink-Luft-Batterien

Zur Stromproduktion werden zunehmend erneuerbare Energiequellen genutzt. Als Speichermöglichkeit für die diskontinuierlich anfallende elektrische Energie gehört unter den Bat-teriesystemen die Zink-Luft-Batterie zu den vielversprechendsten Kandidaten. In dieser Arbeit liegt der Fokus auf der Entwicklung von Sauerstoffreduktionskatalysatoren auf Perowskit-Basis, die eine kostengünstige Alternative zu den etablierten Edelmetall-Katalysatoren darstellen. Geeignete Syntheserouten, Element- und Stöchiometrie-Variationen der Perowskit-Zusammensetzung sowie Kohlenstoffträgermaterialien werden bezüglich der Performance der damit hergestellten Elektroden untersucht und mit einem Silber-Referenzkatalysator verglichen. Dazu werden TEM-, XRD- und RDE-Messungen durchgeführt und analysiert. Für einen Praxistest beim Projektpartner wird zur Bemusterung ein Synthese-Upscaling realisiert. Zur Überprüfung der Bifunktionalität werden die besten Katalysatoren zusätzlich auf Aktivität für die Sauerstoffentwicklung hin untersucht. Es werden erfolgreich Perowskit-Katalysatoren mit ähnlich guter Sauerstoffreduktion wie die Referenz hergestellt und die Katalyse der Rückreaktion wird ebenfalls belegt. Schließlich wird die Bildung von metallischen Abscheidungen an den Stromableitern der Batterie mittels diverser elektronenmikroskopischer Methoden untersucht. Dabei wird elementares Zink eindeutig identifiziert und es wird ein Reaktionsmechanismus als Ursache für die stromlose Abscheidung vorgeschlagen.Renewable sources of energy are increasingly used to produce electricity. As an option for the storage of the discontinuous accruing electrical energy, the zinc-air battery is one of the most promising candidates among battery systems. In this work the focus is on the development of oxygen reduction catalysts with perovskite crystal structure, which present a cost-effective alternative to the established noble metal catalysts. Suitable synthesis routes, element and stoichiometry variations of the perovskite composition and different carbon carrier materials are investigated regarding the performance of the electrodes produced with this materials and the results are compared with a reference silver catalyst. Therefore TEM, XRD and RDE measurements are performed and analysed. For a realistic practice test at a project partner, a synthesis upscaling is realized for the sampling with sufficient amounts. To investigate the bifunctionality, the activity for the oxygen evolution is additionally examined with the best catalysts. Perovskite catalysts with similar oxygen reduction activity as the reference are successfully produced and the catalysis of the reverse reaction is also confirmed. Finally, the formation of metallic deposits on the battery current collectors is investigated by means of various electron microscopy methods. Elemental zinc is clearly identified and a reaction mechanism is proposed as the cause for the currentless deposition

An investigation into how Web 2.0 can be harnessed to create value for the customer and enterprise, both in the present and the near future

The term Web 2.0 is currently in vogue, is subject to enormous volumes of hype, and has been heralded as a business revolution [...] caused by the move to the Internet as a platform (O'Reilly, 2006). However you interpret the meaning of the term, the truth is that killer Web 2.0 applications are changing the way that we interact with the Internet and each other, causing certain businesses to rethink their existing business models. As such Web 2.0 is having a noticeable and sometimes disruptive impact on the way businesses are operating today. In an effort to understand the rules for success on this new Web platform, this dissertation engages in case study analyses of three prominent Web 2.0 products and services in conjunction with research into the current addressable markets and technologies that are pertinent to the topic. The research highlights interesting similarities between each of the chosen web 2.0 companies and indicates that the convergence in digital content, distribution channels and technology is a key factor driving forward the uptake of Web 2.0 products. Finally, this dissertation establishes that in fact Web 2.0 is still far from perfect and that the next iteration of the Web is likely to have just as profound an impact upon our lives as Web 2.0 has done to date

Cultivating capacities in community-based researchers in low-resource settings: Lessons from a participatory study on violence and mental health in Sri Lanka

Participatory methods, which rely heavily on community-based data collectors, are growing in popularity to deliver much-needed evidence on violence and mental health in low- and middle-income countries. These settings, along with local researchers, encounter the highest burden of violence and mental ill-health, with the fewest resources to respond. Despite increased focus on wellbeing for research participants and, to a lesser degree, professional researchers in such studies, the role-specific needs of community-based researchers receive scant attention. This co-produced paper draws insights from one group’s experience to identify rewards, challenges, and recommendations for supporting wellbeing and development of community-based researchers in sensitive participatory projects in low-resource settings. Twenty-one community-based researchers supporting a mixed-methods study on youth, violence and mental health in Sri Lanka submitted 63 reflexive structured journal entries across three rounds of data collection. We applied Attride-Stirling’s method for thematic analysis to explore peer researchers’ learning about research, violence and mental health; personal-professional boundaries; challenges in sensitive research; and experiences of support from the core team. Sri Lanka’s first study capturing experiences of diverse community-based researchers aims to inform the growing number of global health and development actors relying on such talent to deliver sensitive and emotionally difficult work in resource-limited and potentially volatile settings. Viewing participatory research as an opportunity for mutual learning among both community-based and professional researchers, we identify practice gaps and opportunities to foster respectful team dynamics and create generative and safe co-production projects for all parties. Intentional choices around communication, training, human and consumable resources, project design, and navigating instable research conditions can strengthen numerous personal and professional capacities across teams. Such individual and collective growth holds potential to benefit short- and long-term quality of evidence and inform action on critical issues, including violence and mental health, facing high-burden, low-resource contexts

OCT1 expression in pancreatic cancer cell lines MIA PaCa-2 and Panc-1 after metformin and phenformin treatment

Pancreatic cancer is the 13th most common types of cancer and has a poor prognosis of survival. Therefore, it is important further investigate different drugs, especially already well- establish medicaments response in regard to treatment for this particular cancer type. The well-established diabetic type II drugs metformin and phenformin are metabolic drugs that can and may be used for cancer treatment. Cancer cells alter their metabolism in order to support their rapid proliferation, whereas both metformin and phenformin makes metabolic changes that causes stops the cancer cell growth process, mainly by their ability to cross the cell membrane. Organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) are one of the biomarkers being linked to metformin and phenformin import into the tumor cell. The aim for this thesis is the assess both the toxicity, as well as assessing the OCT1 expression when pancreatic cancer cells are being treated with metformin and phenformin. A dose repose assay was conducted for two pancreatic cancer cell lines, MIA PaCa-2 and Panc-1. The Cell counting kit -8 (CCK8) assay was conducted with different concentration of metformin and phenformin, as well as a rapid response and slower response (6 hours and 24 hours). Although the assay did not give concluding values, it shows implementing changes. Assessing OCT1 expression using flow cytometry gave no clear expression of OCT1 in both cell lines and the aim shifted to troubleshoot both the protocol and theory, before further conduction drug treatment. Both by assessing other biomarkers which are important in tumorigenesis, Akt and AMPK, and the staining using propidium iodine

Potential of VLBI VGOS telescope in Tahiti for geodesy and astrometry

In the framework of this thesis, the goal is to examine the planned VGOS network, which is currently being developed by the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS). In Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), groups of radio telescopes are used to observe distant radio galaxies such as quasars to derive important geodetic parameters for scientific purposes. The newly proposed VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS) is expected to lead to a higher accuracy and more reliability in the estimation of the above-mentioned parameters as a result of incorporating smaller telescopes with faster slewing speeds and a larger bandwidth for collecting the data. However, the main problem with the envisioned VGOS network lies within the uneven distribution of telescopes between the northern and the southern hemisphere. However, to reach an increase in the precision of the estimated parameters, having stations in the southern hemisphere is particularly important. Within the context of this work, the task is to evaluate the impact of such a station in Tahiti on the accuracy of the estimated parameters. Currently, the assumption is that a telescope on the island of Tahiti is ought to lead to an increase in the sensitivity of VLBI in regards to variations in the Earth’s rotation. To test this hypothesis, certain sim-ulations are carried out with a state-of-the-art VLBI software. The station Tahiti is added to a VGOS network of choice and subsequently gets compared to all the other stations within the network regarding its impact on the precision of the estimated parameters. The aim is thus to identify possible weaknesses of the used VGOS network and determine the importance of a station in Tahiti in eliminating these weaknesses. Adding a new station in Tahiti certainly supported the initial assumption as significant improvements could be observed for almost all of the estimated geodetic parameters. Furthermore, Tahiti has proven to be of more value than the majority of the other stations of the intended VGOS network, as it often demonstrated to be one of the most important stations to have the greatest impact on precision. Thus, the construction of a telescope in Tahiti is indispensable

The Role of Chirality in Self-assembly of Ferrocene Peptide Conjugates

In this report, the self-assembling behavior of four diastereomeric peptides has been investigated. A series of four Ferrocene tripeptides namely Fc-(L)Phe(L)Phe(L)Leu-OMe, Fc-(D)Phe(L)Phe(L)Leu-OMe, Fc-(L)Phe(D)Phe(L)Leu-OMe and Fc-(L)Phe(L)Phe(D)Leu-OMe have been synthesized and characterized. Next, the gelation performance has been thoroughly investigated and compared in different organic solvents. Interestingly, it has been found that only two peptides namely Fc-(L)Phe(L)Phe(L)Leu-OMe and Fc-(D)Phe(L)Phe(L)Leu-OMe form gel in toluene suggesting the potential effect of chirality in self-assembling process. The conformation and self-assembly have been investigated by variable concentration and variable temperature dependent NMR studies which suggest the involvement of multiple intermolecular hydrogen bonds for gelation. Gels have also been characterized by minimum gelation concentration, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The morphologies of their self-assembled states have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy. Interestingly, two of the Fc-peptides showed the presence of nanofibrillar network structure.M.Sc.2016-11-19 00:00:0