China's new Government: Priorities, Programs, Reform Signals. Asia Policy Brief 2013/02, May 2013

Never before has any change of leadership in China drawn this much international attention. The composition of the new party and state leadership in China is the result of many years of probing and negotiating within the top levels of the Communist Party. New priorities and leadership styles may cause fundamental shifts in the mechanisms of governance during the decade that China’s new leadership will be in control. Thus, the installation of a new government in China has potentially stronger long-term effects than most government turnovers in Western Democracies.

The EU power sector needs long-term price signals. CEPS Special Report No. 135/April 2016

By 2030, half of the EU’s electricity demand will be covered by renewables and will need to be accompanied by flexible conventional back-up resources. Due to the high upfront costs inherent to renewables and the progressively lower running times associated with back-up capacity, the cost of capital will have a proportionately greater impact on total costs than today. This report examines how electricity markets can be designed to provide long-term price signals, thereby reducing the cost of capital for these technologies and allowing for a more efficient transition. It finds that current market arrangements are unable to provide long-term price signals. To address this issue, we argue that a system for long-term contracts with a regulated counterparty could be implemented. A centralised system where capacity or energy or a combination of both is contracted, could be introduced for conventional and renewable capacity, based on a regional adequacy assessment and with a competitive bidding system in place to ensure cost-effectiveness. Member states face a number of legislative barriers while implementing these types of systems, however, which could be reduced by merging legislation and setting EU framework rules for the design of these contractual agreements.

Opposing RA and FGF signals control proximodistal vertebrate limb development through regulation of Meis genes.

Vertebrate limbs develop in a temporal proximodistal sequence, with proximal regions specified and generated earlier than distal ones. Whereas considerable information is available on the mechanisms promoting limb growth, those involved in determining the proximodistal identity of limb parts remain largely unknown. We show here that retinoic acid (RA) is an upstream activator of the proximal determinant genes Meis1 and Meis2. RA promotes proximalization of limb cells and endogenous RA signaling is required to maintain the proximal Meis domain in the limb. RA synthesis and signaling range, which initially span the entire lateral plate mesoderm, become restricted to proximal limb domains by the apical ectodermal ridge (AER) activity following limb initiation. We identify fibroblast growth factor (FGF) as the main molecule responsible for this AER activity and propose a model integrating the role of FGF in limb cell proliferation, with a specific function in promoting distalization through inhibition of RA production and signaling.

Domain Globalization: Using Languages to Support Technical and Social Coordination

When a project is realized in a globalized environment, multiple stakeholders from different organizations work on the same system. Depending on the stakeholders and their organizations, various (possibly overlapping) concerns are raised in the development of the system. In this context a Domain Specific Language (DSL) supports the work of a group of stakeholders who are responsible for addressing a specific set of concerns. This chapter identifies the open challenges arising from the coordination of globalized domain-specific languages. We identify two types of coordination: technical coordination and social coordination. After presenting an overview of the current state of the art, we discuss first the open challenges arising from the composition of multiple DSLs, and then the open challenges associated to the collaboration in a globalized environment.

Changes Measurement in Biological Signals Based on Dynamic Time Warping Procedure on the Example of Repolarization Part of HeartbeatCycle

Master thesis discusses the analysis of changes in biological signals on time based on dynamic time warping algorithm (DTW). Special attention is paid to problems of tiny changes analysis incomplex nonstationary biological signals. Electrocardiographic (ECG) signals are used as an example inthis study; in particular, repolarization segments of heart beat cycles. The aim of the research is studyingthe possibility of applying DTW algorithm for the analysis of small changes in the repolarization segments of heart beat cycles. The research has the following tasks:- Studying repolarization segments of heart beat cycles, andmethods of their analysis;- Studying DTW algorithm and its modifications, finding the most appropriate modification for analyzing changes in biological signals;- Development of methods for analyzing the warping path(output parameter of DTW algorithm).