On preparation of Poland´s regions to knowledge-based economy

Poland is in a phase of preparing intensively to the European Union Membership intensifying negotiation process and making necessary adjustments of its law and structures. One of actions is preparation to attain Poland''s readiness to use Structural Funds. Apart of fulfilling legal and institutional accession requirements, Poland must undertake an effort transitioning from middle income economy to the innovation-based economy in order to participate in the European Union policy oriented for enhancing its competitiveness. The objective of this contribution is to analyse the ability of existing regions in Poland (NUTS2) to fulfil requisites to create regions based on knowledge-for-development, such as setting up institutional and economic environment that enables free flow of knowledge, supporting ITC, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. Moreover it will be studied to what extent the educated and skilled population in selected regions can create, share and use knowledge. Finally the paper will discuss a situation regarding networks of research institutions, universities, industry (particularly with special concern on SMEs clusters), trying to reveal whether they are ready to use national and international knowledge and creating own knowledge. The above analysis will be presented in the framework of workpackages structure developed in the proposal of the IKINET project.

Substitutions in the redox-sensing PAS domain of the NifL regulatory protein define an inter-subunit pathway for redox signal transmission

The Per-ARNT-Sim (PAS) domain is a conserved a/ß fold present within a plethora of signalling proteins from all kingdoms of life. PAS domains are often dimeric and act as versatile sensory and interaction modules to propagate environmental signals to effector domains. The NifL regulatory protein from Azotobacter vinelandii senses the oxygen status of the cell via an FAD cofactor accommodated within the first of two amino-terminal tandem PAS domains, termed PAS1 and PAS2. The redox signal perceived at PAS1 is relayed to PAS2 resulting in conformational reorganization of NifL and consequent inhibition of NifA activity. We have identified mutations in the cofactor-binding cavity of PAS1 that prevent 'release' of the inhibitory signal upon oxidation of FAD. Substitutions of conserved ß-sheet residues on the distal surface of the FAD-binding cavity trap PAS1 in the inhibitory signalling state, irrespective of the redox state of the FAD group. In contrast, substitutions within the flanking A'a-helix that comprises part of the dimerization interface of PAS1 prevent transmission of the inhibitory signal. Taken together, these results suggest an inter-subunit pathway for redox signal transmission from PAS1 that propagates from core to the surface in a conformation-dependent manner requiring a flexible dimer interface

On preparation of Poland's regions to knowledge-based economy

Poland is in a phase of preparing intensively to the European Union Membership intensifying negotiation process and making necessary adjustments of its law and structures. One of actions is preparation to attain Poland's readiness to use Structural Funds. Apart of fulfilling legal and institutional accession requirements, Poland must undertake an effort transitioning from middle income economy to the innovation-based economy in order to participate in the European Union policy oriented for enhancing its competitiveness. The objective of this contribution is to analyse the ability of existing regions in Poland (NUTS2) to fulfil requisites to create regions based on knowledge-for-development, such as setting up institutional and economic environment that enables free flow of knowledge, supporting ITC, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. Moreover it will be studied to what extent the educated and skilled population in selected regions can create, share and use knowledge. Finally the paper will discuss a situation regarding networks of research institutions, universities, industry (particularly with special concern on SMEs clusters), trying to reveal whether they are ready to use national and international knowledge and creating own knowledge. The above analysis will be presented in the framework of workpackages structure developed in the proposal of the IKINET project

The Development of Ethical Reasoning: A Comparison of Online versus Hybrid Delivery Modes of Ethics Instruction

There is a concerted effort to improve online learning opportunities in higher education, including in the domain of engineering ethics. The benefits of online learning include ease in sharing course content, flexibility in the timing of participation, and increased variation in delivery modes for course material. However, the effect of online and hybrid participation on developing ethical reasoning in students is largely unknown, and interactive cases and dialogic learning are central to the pedagogy in ethics courses. An opportunity to fill this knowledge gap occurred while testing a new pedagogy for enhancing ethical reasoning among engineering graduate students, implemented in a graduate-level course over three offerings in Spring 2014, Summer 2014, and Spring 2015. Of the 29 students enrolled, 11 participated on-campus in a weekly class discussion-based lecture, and 18 completed the majority of course activities online. This multi-phase study presents results from a comparative analysis of the differences in ethical reasoning development and perception of course activities across these groups. Both groups of students showed substantial gains in their ethical reasoning development. Furthermore, changes in ethical reasoning were not significantly different when students participated in the on-line only versus an on-line/in-class or “hybrid” format. Nonetheless, analysis from post-course surveys indicated that the hybrid group perceived course activities more favorably than did their on-line only peers. In sum, these results indicate that on-line ethics interventions can be designed to be as impactful in developing ethical reasoning as formats that include an in-class component, although students may be more satisfied with ethics education when they have the opportunity for face-to-face, in-class interaction with peers and instructors

Evidence for the Existence of an Effective Interfacial Tension between Miscible Fluids: Isobutyric Acid-Water and 1-Butanol-Water in a Spinning-Drop Tensiometer

We report definitive evidence for an effective interfacial tension between two types of miscible fluids using spinning-drop tensiometry (SDT). Isobutyric acid (IBA) and water have an upper critical solution temperature (UCST) of 26.3 degrees C. We created a drop of the IBA-rich phase in the water-rich phase below the UCST and then increased the temperature above it. Long after the fluids have reached thermal equilibrium, the drop persists. By plotting the inverse of the drop radius cubed (r(-3)) vs the rotation rate squared (omega(2)), we confirmed that an interfacial tension exists and estimated its value. The transition between the miscible fluids remained sharp instead of becoming more diffuse, and the drop volume decreased with time. We observed droplet breakup via the Rayleigh-Tomotika instability above the UCST when the rotation rate was decreased by 80%, again demonstrating the existence of an effective inter-facial tension. When pure IBA was injected into water above the UCST, drops formed inside the main drop even as the main drop decreased in volume with time. We also studied 1-butanol in water below the solubility limit. Effective interfacial tension values measured over time were practically constant, while the interface between the two phases remains sharp as the volume of the drop declines. The effective interfacial tension was found to be insensitive to changes in temperature and always larger than the equilibrium interfacial tension. Although these results may not apply to all miscible fluids, they clearly show that an effective interfacial tension can exist and be measured by SDT for some systems

Using Our Theory of Mind for Inferences in Strategic Reasoning

Honors (Bachelor's)Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience (BCN)University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112161/1/arzolt.pd

The Impact Of Plasmonically Generated Hot-carriers On Sers Analysis

Plasmonic nanostructures have paved the way for the development of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS); a technique that takes advantage of the Raman signal specific to the molecular vibrational modes. SERS enhances the Raman signal up to 109-fold allowing for lower limits of detection. Through the illumination of the nanostructure with a laser, a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is excited and further the enhances the electric field at the surface of the nanostructure. While the excitation of the LSPR enhances the Raman signal, it can also generate hot carries that cause the formation of photoproducts that can change the Raman signal. Photoproducts have been reported for various nanostructures in different SERS experiments and can include cross-linking/dimerization, fragmentation, and radical formation. Understanding the parameters and occurrences of these photoproducts will allow for the ability to prevent them when not desired and generate them for further applications. Previously, our group has reported on radical formation with the amino acid tryptophan as well as 4-mercaptobenzoic acid, a common Raman reporter molecule. This work will use changes in the SERS signal to elaborate on the conditions and dynamics of these radical formation reactions associated with the plasmonic activity of nanostructures

Channel estimation method with improved performance for the UMTS-TDD mode

Channel estimation is an essential building block for UTRA-TDD high performance receivers. Once the performance of the channel estimator algorithm proposed by 3GPP is highly dependent on the time spreading between consecutive multi-path components, a Successive Multi-path channel Estimation Technique (SMET) that improves the time resolution is proposed in this paper. A SMET based maximum likelihood approach for vectorial channel estimation, to include the estimation of the direction-of-arrival, is also proposed. This algorithm solves efficiently the complex problem of DOA estimation of multiple users in a multi path propagation environment even when the number of required DOA's exceeds the number of antenna array elements. Another property of the proposed algorithm is its ability to resolve signals from different users arriving from the same direction. This is due to processing in both time and space dimensions. The performance of these algorithms is assessed by resorting to simulations in multi-path environments using the UMTS-TDD specifications, and also by comparing the rms estimation errors against the Crámer-Rao Bound. The effect of imperfect channel estimation on the performance of RAKE and Hard-Decision Parallel Interference Canceller receivers is also analysed. The results show that a good performance can be achieved with SMET, from low to high values of Eb/n0