THE RUSSIAN AIRLINE INDUSTRY:CONTESTABLE MARKET OR…?

The authors, based on the complete survey of Russian airlines that was conducted in winter of 2006-2007, analyze essential entry-barriers in the industry, and econometrically estimate efficiency of methods for overcoming entry-barriers in the Russian PAI. They find that there are significant technological and behavioral entry-barriers in the industry. The paper doubts that this industry is contestable in contemporary Russia, although it is typically contestable in Europe and the USA. Econometric estimation of entry-barriers points that administrative barriers are the most significant restrictions of competition.Entry-barriers, airline industry, contestable market, market structure, International Development, Marketing, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, L1, L93,

CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL HERITAGE OF ARCHIVES ON AWARDING HOME FRONT WORKERS IN THE FIRST POST-WAR YEARS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF SMOLENSK REGION (RUSSIA)

The article deals with collecting documents deposited in the State Archive of the Smolensk Region (Russia) on awarding homefront workers in the first post war years. The authors systemize these documents, evaluate the information given in them, and analyze the possibility of using the documents in further research into the valiant labor of home front workers in the Great Patriotic War. The study aims to develop an approach that allows one to systemize the array of documents in the archive and trace the mech anism of awarding distinguished labor decorations. The source framework primarily consists of documents from the State Archives of the Smolensk Region (fund of the Smolensk Regional Executive Committee). As a result, the authors identify the names of 58,29 8 Soviet citizens who lived in the Smolensk region at the time of being awarded the medal. This approach is proposed to be applied in further studies and used in historical research and regional history work

OPTIMIZATION OF MECHANICAL STRENGTH OF ROTARY-VANE ENGINE

The article discusses a rotory-vane heat engine with a lever-cam mechanism motion conversion (an engine may be an internal combustion or external combustion). The output shaft of the engine adds drive torque from the working fluid pressure forces acting on the blade and the inertial moment of the forces of inertia of engine components. The mechanical strength of the motor is dependent on the magnitude and phase of these two torque. The purpose of the article is to determine the conditions under which mechanical strength is minimized

Thermodynamic cycle with two-component working fluid

The article deals with the implementation of the thermodynamic cycle using the two-component working fluid. An estimated calculation of the efficiency of using the two-component working fluid, and a variant implementation of the thermodynamic cycle rotary vane engine with an external heat supply are described

Color transitions in coral's fluorescent proteins by site-directed mutagenesis

BACKGROUND: Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) cloned from jellyfish Aequorea victoria and its homologs from corals Anthozoa have a great practical significance as in vivo markers of gene expression. Also, they are an interesting puzzle of protein science due to an unusual mechanism of chromophore formation and diversity of fluorescent colors. Fluorescent proteins can be subdivided into cyan (~ 485 nm), green (~ 505 nm), yellow (~ 540 nm), and red (>580 nm) emitters. RESULTS: Here we applied site-directed mutagenesis in order to investigate the structural background of color variety and possibility of shifting between different types of fluorescence. First, a blue-shifted mutant of cyan amFP486 was generated. Second, it was established that cyan and green emitters can be modified so as to produce an intermediate spectrum of fluorescence. Third, the relationship between green and yellow fluorescence was inspected on closely homologous green zFP506 and yellow zFP538 proteins. The following transitions of colors were performed: yellow to green; yellow to dual color (green and yellow); and green to yellow. Fourth, we generated a mutant of cyan emitter dsFP483 that demonstrated dual color (cyan and red) fluorescence. CONCLUSIONS: Several amino acid substitutions were found to strongly affect fluorescence maxima. Some positions primarily found by sequence comparison were proved to be crucial for fluorescence of particular color. These results are the first step towards predicting the color of natural GFP-like proteins corresponding to newly identified cDNAs from corals

DETERMINATION OF CHAMBER AND PISTON GEOMETRY FOR A ROTARY TYPE EXPANSION MACHINE

The article deals with the determination of chamber and piston geometry for a rotary expansion machine. Analytical expressions for the working surface area of piston and for chamber volume are derived. Three defining parameters of the expansion machine were obtained: gas dynamic machine constant Cp; constant M0 connecting torque and Cp; the main dimensionless parameter of the machine Q0, which relates the volume of the chamber and the torque

CONSTRUCTION OF PISTON OUTER PROFILE FOR ROTARY TYPE EXPANSION MACHINE

The article discusses methods for constructing piston outer profile for the rotary type expansion machine in order to reduce unwanted (parasitic) volumes and offers options for constructing outer profile of piston using analytical and geometric methods

Low-loss K-band Photoconductive Switches in SIW Technology

A design approach for mmWave switches in substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology is demonstrated. The switch is based on a photoconductive element (PE) which represents a piece of an intrinsic silicon wafer with light modulated conductivity. Using both dielectric (high-resistivity) and conductive states of the PE, we can design a low-loss mmWave switching element. Owing to the light actuation, the control circuitry of the photoconductive switch (PS) is electrically separated from the high-frequency elements of the device. This solves the bottleneck of conventional mmWave switches based on PIN diodes, MOSFETs, MEMS, etc., which are bulky and lossy due to decoupling filters and matching elements of control and biasing circuits. The proposed approach is generic and can be applied to many mmWave applications within 10\ua0—\ua0100\ua0GHz such as 5G, WiGig, automotive radars, and others

Integrated W-band Photoconductive Switches in SIW Technology

A novel approach for the design of mmWave substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) switches is presented. The switch is based on controllable photoconductive elements (PEs), whose conductivity is modulated by a light source. The PE is integrated on the top SIW metal plate and provides either a short-circuit or transmission operation regime, depending on the actuation conditions. Owing to the light actuation, the mmWave and DC control circuitry are naturally decoupled, which, in turn, makes the design low-loss and compact as compared to PIN diode and integrated circuit-based SIW switches implementations. We demonstrate two examples of SIW photoconductive switches (PSs) at W-band: single-pole single-throw (SPST) and single-pole double-throw (SPDT) PSs. Their operation principle, actuation, and parasitic radiation suppression are discussed. Measurements show the peak insertion loss of 0.9 and 2.2 dB, isolation better than 25 and 30 dB, and –10-dB impedance bandwidth of 21 and 15% for the SPST and SPDT PSs, respectively