Spectral study and classification of worldwide locations considering several multijunction solar cell technologies

Multi-junction solar cells are widely used in high-concentration photovoltaic systems (HCPV) attaining the highest efficiencies in photovoltaic energy generation. This technology is more dependent on the spectral variations of the impinging Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) than conventional photovoltaics based on silicon solar cells and consequently demands a deeper knowledge of the solar resource characteristics. This article explores the capabilities of spectral indexes, namely, spectral matching ratios (SMR), to spectrally characterize the annual irradiation reaching a particular location on the Earth and to provide the necessary information for the spectral optimization of a MJ solar cell in that location as a starting point for CPV module spectral tuning. Additionally, the relationship between such indexes and the atmosphere parameters, such as the aerosol optical depth (AOD), precipitable water (PW), and air mass (AM), is discussed using radiative transfer models such as SMARTS to generate the spectrally-resolved DNI. The network of ground-based sun and sky-scanning radiometers AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) is exploited to obtain the atmosphere parameters for a selected bunch of 34 sites worldwide. Finally, the SMR indexes are obtained for every location, and a comparative analysis is carried out for four architectures of triple junction solar cells, covering both lattice match and metamorphic technologies. The differences found among cell technologies are much less significant than among locations.

Contributions of cell kill and posttreatment tumor growth rates to the repopulation of intracerebral 9L tumors after chemotherapy: An MRI study

The drought of progress in clinical brain tumor therapy provides an impetus for developing new treatments as well as methods for testing therapeutics in animal models. The inability of traditional assays to simultaneously measure tumor size, location, growth kinetics, and cell kill achieved by a treatment complicates the interpretation of therapy experiments in animal models. To address these issues, tumor volume measurements obtained from serial magnetic resonance images were used to noninvasively estimate cell kill values in individual rats with intracerebral 9L tumors after treatment with 0.5, 1, or 2 × LD10 doses of 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea. The calculated cell kill values were consistently lower than those reported using traditional assays. A dose-dependent increase in 9L tumor doubling time after treatment was observed that significantly contributed to the time required for surviving cells to repopulate the tumor mass. This study reveals that increases in animal survival are not exclusively attributable to the fraction of tumor cells killed but rather are a function of the cell kill and repopulation kinetics, both of which vary with treatment dose.

Ion channel genes and human neurological disease: Recent progress, prospects, and challenges

What do epilepsy, migraine headache, deafness, episodic ataxia, periodic paralysis, malignant hyperthermia, and generalized myotonia have in common? These human neurological disorders can be caused by mutations in genes for ion channels. Many of the channel diseases are “paroxysmal disorders” whose principal symptoms occur intermittently in individuals who otherwise may be healthy and active. Some of the ion channels that cause human neurological disease are old acquaintances previously cloned and extensively studied by channel specialists. In other cases, however, disease-gene hunts have led the way to the identification of new channel genes. Progress in the study of ion channels has made it possible to analyze the effects of human neurological disease-causing channel mutations at the level of the single channel, the subcellular domain, the neuronal network, and the behaving organism.

Progress toward chemical accuracy in the computer simulation of condensed phase reactions.

We describe a procedure for the generation of chemically accurate computer-simulation models to study chemical reactions in the condensed phase. The process involves (i) the use of a coupled semiempirical quantum and classical molecular mechanics method to represent solutes and solvent, respectively; (ii) the optimization of semiempirical quantum mechanics (QM) parameters to produce a computationally efficient and chemically accurate QM model; (iii) the calibration of a quantum/classical microsolvation model using ab initio quantum theory; and (iv) the use of statistical mechanical principles and methods to simulate, on massively parallel computers, the thermodynamic properties of chemical reactions in aqueous solution. The utility of this process is demonstrated by the calculation of the enthalpy of reaction in vacuum and free energy change in aqueous solution for a proton transfer involving methanol, methoxide, imidazole, and imidazolium, which are functional groups involved with proton transfers in many biochemical systems. An optimized semiempirical QM model is produced, which results in the calculation of heats of formation of the above chemical species to within 1.0 kcal/mol (1 kcal = 4.18 kJ) of experimental values. The use of the calibrated QM and microsolvation QM/MM (molecular mechanics) models for the simulation of a proton transfer in aqueous solution gives a calculated free energy that is within 1.0 kcal/mol (12.2 calculated vs. 12.8 experimental) of a value estimated from experimental pKa values of the reacting species.

Multiple Perspectives on Academic Service-Learning Partnerships at the American University in Cairo: A Mixed Method Study

This mixed method study aimed to redress the gap in the literature on academic service-learning partnerships, especially in Eastern settings. It utilized Enos and Morton's (2003) theoretical framework to explore these partnerships at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Seventy-nine community partners, administrators, faculty members, and students from a diverse range of age, citizenship, racial, educational, and professional backgrounds participated in the study. Qualitative interviews were conducted with members of these four groups, and a survey with both close-ended and open-ended questions administered to students yielded 61 responses. Qualitative analyses revealed that the primary motivators for partners' engagement in service-learning partnerships included contributing to the community, enhancing students' learning and growth, and achieving the civic mission of the University. These partnerships were characterized by short-term relationships with partners' aspiring to progress toward long-term commitments. The challenges to these partnerships included issues pertaining to the institution, partnering organizations, culture, politics, pedagogy, students, and faculty members. Key strategies for improving these partnerships included institutionalizing service-learning in the University and cultivating an institutional culture supportive of community engagement. Quantitative analyses showed statistically significant relationships between students' scores on the Community Awareness and Interpersonal Effectiveness scales and their overall participation in community service activities inside and outside the classroom, as well as a statistically significant difference between their scores on the Community Awareness scale and department offering service-learning courses. The study's outcomes underscore the role of the local culture in shaping service-learning partnerships, as well as the role of both curricular and extracurricular activities in boosting students' awareness of their community and interpersonal effectiveness. Cultivating a culture of community engagement and building support mechanisms for engaged scholarship are among the critical steps required by public policy-makers in Egypt to promote service-learning in Egyptian higher education. Institutionalizing service-learning partnerships at AUC and enhancing the visibility of these partnerships on campus and in the community are essential to the future growth of these collaborations. Future studies should explore factors affecting community partners' satisfaction with these partnerships, top-down and bottom-up support to service-learning, the value of reflection to faculty members, and the influence of students' economic backgrounds on their involvement in service-learning partnerships.

Capacity-building through English language training to improve long-term resettlement success: A case study of the refugees along the Thailand-Burma border

Achieving long-term resettlement success is a challenge for many refugees seeking to restart their lives after displacement and being uprooted from their lives. Refugees must deal with finding employment, integrating into a society immensely different from what they have known their whole lives, and starting over from scratch. Learning a new language enables refugees to progress towards integration and long-term resettlement success, however, resettled refugees face a multitude of barriers in the U.S. to accessing language classes and attaining English proficiency. This study seeks to bridge this problem by exploring the possibilities of implementing a standardized language training program in the refugee camps to better prepare refugees for resettlement. A case study of the refugees along the Thai-Burma border demonstrated the significance of learning English in the camps on eventual English proficiency as well as the need for increased partnerships to overcome the barriers of lack of motivation and lack of funding. The author explores the possibilities of implementing a language training program in the camps by determining need, interest, barriers, and perceptions through the use of interviews, surveys, and focus groups of camp refugees, resettled refugees, and key organizational representatives. The significance of these results offers the possibility of leveraging and unlocking resettlement as a durable solution for more of the world's refugees in protracted situations.

Developing a programme theory to explain how primary health care teams learn to respond to intimate partner violence: a realist case-study

Background: Despite the progress made on policies and programmes to strengthen primary health care teams’ response to Intimate Partner Violence, the literature shows that encounters between women exposed to IPV and health-care providers are not always satisfactory, and a number of barriers that prevent individual health-care providers from responding to IPV have been identified. We carried out a realist case study, for which we developed and tested a programme theory that seeks to explain how, why and under which circumstances a primary health care team in Spain learned to respond to IPV. Methods: A realist case study design was chosen to allow for an in-depth exploration of the linkages between context, intervention, mechanisms and outcomes as they happen in their natural setting. The first author collected data at the primary health care center La Virgen (pseudonym) through the review of documents, observation and interviews with health systems’ managers, team members, women patients, and members of external services. The quality of the IPV case management was assessed with the PREMIS tool. Results: This study found that the health care team at La Virgen has managed 1) to engage a number of staff members in actively responding to IPV, 2) to establish good coordination, mutual support and continuous learning processes related to IPV, 3) to establish adequate internal referrals within La Virgen, and 4) to establish good coordination and referral systems with other services. Team and individual level factors have triggered the capacity and interest in creating spaces for team leaning, team work and therapeutic responses to IPV in La Virgen, although individual motivation strongly affected this mechanism. Regional interventions did not trigger individual and/ or team responses but legitimated the workings of motivated professionals. Conclusions: The primary health care team of La Virgen is involved in a continuous learning process, even as participation in the process varies between professionals. This process has been supported, but not caused, by a favourable policy for integration of a health care response to IPV. Specific contextual factors of La Virgen facilitated the uptake of the policy. To some extent, the performance of La Virgen has the potential to shape the IPV learning processes of other primary health care teams in Murcia.

Changing Attitudes And Expectations In A University Setting: A Case Study

First and second year students enrolled in a four-year movement education based university Physical Education program completed a questionnaire regarding their expectations on entering university. In addition, graduates of the program were interviewed, one year after graduation, with regard to their understanding of and attitude towards movement education and how these had developed relative to their overall degree program. Most students had no knowledge of movement education prior to entering the program and the selection of this particular program was simply coincidental with their desire to pursue physical education. Whereas the students did participate in an activity course and a theory course in Year 1, it was only when participating in a Year 2 movement course which combined theory and practice within the same course that students recognized the movement base of the content. The progress of the students through the program reflects distinct declarative and procedural stages in knowledge development followed by an ability to generalize that knowledge a conceptual stage. The real understanding of movement education came as the students were required to teach movement education to students, children, and other groups.

Eurasian integration. Russia's attempt at the economic unification of the post-Soviet area. OSW Study 44/2013

In 2009, Vladimir Putin, the then Russian prime minister, gave impetus to the establishment of closer relations within what was then a still narrow group of three countries: Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Russia was determined in embarking on the implementation of the principles of the Customs Union among these three states and, since 2012, within the Common Economic Space as well. This process of integration is intended to bring about the introduction of ‘four freedoms’ in this area: the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour. From Moscow’s point of view, building up such integration structures is especially necessary in order to counteract the economic expansion of the European Union and China. It also feels it is important to take measures against the loosening of the bonds between the CIS countries and Russia. At the same time, close co-operation is expected to guarantee for Russia that the strong politico-economic influences in this area will be maintained. Despite the numerous limitations of the integration process, such as the small number of the participating states or limited progress in implementing the CES, this is still the most advanced integration programme in the region seen since the collapse of the USSR. Progress in putting the rules of the Customs Union into practice can be seen as a success for Moscow. In turn, the formation of the CES is still at an early stage, and it is difficult to determine at this point to what extent the three countries will harmonise their markets.

The tug of war. Russia's response to changes on the European gas market. OSW Study 50/2014

Russia, being aware of the evolution of the EU gas market and the fluctuations in trends that accompany it, and in an attempt to maintain its position on the European gas market, is sticking to a dichotomous strategy. On the one hand, Moscow has taken an offensive approach: it continues its traditionally critical rhetoric with regard to the legal and institutional changes; by negating the legitimacy of the new rules, it has been making efforts to undermine them by employing legal and political measures; Russia has used such traditional economic means as investments in assets and pushing through the implementation of new gas pipeline construction projects. On the other hand, the evolution of the EU gas market has forced Russia to take steps to adapt to a certain extent: partial changes in the operation of the internal gas sector; promises to further curb Gazprom’s dominant position; the concessions made in trade negotiations with European partners; partial adjustments to the EU’s so called third energy package regulations. Hoping that the unfolding situation on the gas markets will contribute to slowing down the recent liberalisation tendencies in the EU and that EU member states won’t make progress in decreasing their dependence on Russian gas, Moscow is thus preparing itself for the ‘long game’ in gas with its European partners.

One country, two societies? Germany twenty years after reunification. OSW Study 35/2011

3 October 2010 marked the twentieth anniversary of the reunification of the two German states. This is an occasion for summing up and evaluating the changes which have taken place in Germany since 1990. Germany became reunited through the incorporation of the East German federal states to the then Federal Republic of Germany. The West German point of view is predominant in public discourse regarding this issue, which is manifested through grading the new federal states for their progress in assimilation to the western part of Germany. However, this way the positive changes which have taken place in the social, political and economic areas in the eastern federal states over the past two decades are often disregarded. This paper is an attempt to show the changes which have taken place in Germany, involving areas in which new federal states have outperformed the western part of the country.

Big business in the Russian economy and politics under Putin's rule; The Russian power industry shortly before reforms; Ukrainian metallurgy: the economic link in the oligarchical system. OSW Study 5/2002

Big business in Russia: The pace of ownership transfer in the Russian economy has speeded up considerably over the last year. There has been a significant rise in the number of acquisitions of whole enterprises, and large blocks of shares in individual firms and plants. Similarly the number of mergers, bankruptcies and take-overs of failing firms by their strongest competitors has grown. The Russian power industry: This study is an overview of the current condition and principles on which the Russian power sector has been functioning so far. This analysis has been carried out against the background of the changes that have been taking place in the sector since the beginning of the 1990s. This text also contains a description of guidelines and progress made so far in implementing the reform of the Russian power industry, the draft of which was adopted by the government of the Russian Federation in summer 2001. However, the purpose of this study is not an economic analysis of the draft, but an attempt to present the political conditions and possible consequences of the transformations carried out in the Russian power sector. The final part attempts to evaluate the possibilities and threats related to the implementation of the reform in its present shape. Ukrainian metallurgy: The metallurgic sector, like the east-west transit of energy raw materials, is a strategic source of revenue for Ukraine. Over the last ten years, this sector has become Kiev's most important source of foreign currency inflows, accounting for over 40 per cent of its total export revenues. The growth of metallurgic production, which has continued almost without interruption since the mid-1990s, has contributed considerably to the increase in GDP which Ukraine showed in 2000, for the first time in its independent history.

Assessing US and EU Foreign Targeting Arab Youth: Lessons from Morocco. ACES Working Papers (progress report), August 2009

As stated in the opening sentence of the proposal submitted for the ACES grant in 2009, the research that this seed grant is supporting is ambitious and large in scale. The primary goal is to produce a book-length study that assesses the priorities and impact of European and American foreign aid targeting youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). To date, the research undertaken with the support of the grant has helped in providing some preliminary data for a) testing few hypotheses, b) fine-tuning the research design; and c) pointing to the direction where more conceptual and ethnographic research should be undertaken.

EU democratization policies in the Neighbourhood countries and Russia’s reaction as a destabilizing factor. A comparative case study of Georgia and Moldova. Bruges Political Research Papers 45/2015.

The EU democratization policies have not achieved the expected results in Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. On the contrary, they have led to the outbreak of the most important crisis in Europe after the end of the cold war. A new vision of cooperation in the field of democracy is necessary in the East, as long as even Georgia and Moldova, countries considered to be the most advanced among the EaP states, have not registered essential progress in the democratization of their societies. Assuming that democratization, as part of EU’s neighbourhood policies, can be considered a threat to Russia and hence a ‘destabilizing factor’ for the EU partners, this thesis tried to understand what changes can be made to EU policies and to what extent cooperation between EU and Russia is possible in the process developing democratization policies in Georgia and Moldova. While arguing for the revitalization of the instruments used for the implementation of the democratization policies, this thesis finds that cooperation between the EU and Russia in the field of democracy is excluded as long as the two geo-political actors have different values and different views on the notion of democracy. The most likely cooperation that might occur between EU and Russia is the establishment of a Common Economic Space ‘from Lisbon to Vladivostok’. Even though such a scenario would have the potential to reduce confrontation between the two actors in the common neighbourhood, this cooperation would, however, have a negative impact on the on-going democratic reforms in Georgia and Moldova.

Prospective longitudinal voxel-based morphometry study of major depressive disorder in young individuals at high familial risk

BACKGROUND Previous neuroimaging studies indicate abnormalities in cortico-limbic circuitry in mood disorder. Here we employ prospective longitudinal voxel-based morphometry to examine the trajectory of these abnormalities during early stages of illness development. METHOD Unaffected individuals (16-25 years) at high and low familial risk of mood disorder underwent structural brain imaging on two occasions 2 years apart. Further clinical assessment was conducted 2 years after the second scan (time 3). Clinical outcome data at time 3 was used to categorize individuals: (i) healthy controls ('low risk', n = 48); (ii) high-risk individuals who remained well (HR well, n = 53); and (iii) high-risk individuals who developed a major depressive disorder (HR MDD, n = 30). Groups were compared using longitudinal voxel-based morphometry. We also examined whether progress to illness was associated with changes in other potential risk markers (personality traits, symptoms scores and baseline measures of childhood trauma), and whether any changes in brain structure could be indexed using these measures. RESULTS Significant decreases in right amygdala grey matter were found in HR MDD v. controls (p = 0.001) and v. HR well (p = 0.005). This structural change was not related to measures of childhood trauma, symptom severity or measures of sub-diagnostic anxiety, neuroticism or extraversion, although cross-sectionally these measures significantly differentiated the groups at baseline. CONCLUSIONS These longitudinal findings implicate structural amygdala changes in the neurobiology of mood disorder. They also provide a potential biomarker for risk stratification capturing additional information beyond clinically ascertained measures.