Germany's solar cell promotion: Dark clouds on the horizon

This article demonstrates that the large feed-in tariffs currently guaranteed for solar electricity in Germany constitute a subsidization regime that threatens to reach a level comparable to that of German hard coal production, a notoriously outstanding example of misguided political intervention. Yet, as a consequence of the coexistence of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the increased use of renewable energy technologies does not imply any additional emission reductions beyond those already achieved by ETS alone. Similarly disappointing is the net employment balance, which is likely to be negative if one takes into account the opportunity cost of this form of solar photovoltaic (PV) support. Along the lines of the international energy agency [IEA, 2007. Energy policies of IEA countries: Germany, 2007 review. International Energy Agency, OECD, Paris, p. 77], we recommend the immediate and drastic reduction of the magnitude of the feed-in tariffs granted for solar-based electricity. Ultimately, producing electricity on this basis is among the most expensive greenhouse gas abatement options.     

Tobacco etch virus protease: mechanism of autolysis and rational design of stable mutants with wild-type catalytic proficiency

Because of its stringent sequence specificity, the catalyticdomain of the nuclear inclusion protease from tobacco etch virus(TEV) is a useful reagent for cleaving genetically engineeredfusion proteins. However, a serious drawback of TEV proteaseis that it readily cleaves itself at a specific site to generatea truncated enzyme with greatly diminished activity. The rateof autoinactivation is proportional to the concentration ofTEV protease, implying a bimolecular reaction mechanism. Yet,a catalytically active protease was unable to convert a catalyticallyinactive protease into the truncated form. Adding increasingconcentrations of the catalytically inactive protease to a fixedamount of the wild-type enzyme accelerated its rate of autoinactivation.Taken together, these results suggest that autoinactivationof TEV protease may be an intramolecular reaction that is facilitatedby an allosteric interaction between protease molecules. Inan effort to create a more stable protease, we made amino acidsubstitutions in the P2 and P1' positions of the internal cleavagesite and assessed their impact on the enzyme's stability andcatalytic activity. One of the P1' mutants, S219V, was not onlyfar more stable than the wild-type protease (~100-fold), butalso a more efficient catalyst.     

Factors explaining why people join, remain in, or leave a scholarly society: The Canadian Psychological Association.

Both theory and subject matter experts were used to generate items for a survey designed to increase understanding of why psychologists join, remain in, or leave the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA). The subject matter experts included current, former, and nonmember psychologists. 2,200 questionnaires were distributed by e-mail, and 275 were sent by surface mail. The response rates were 20% and 29% for e-mail and surface mail, respectively. Principal components analysis of the survey items resulted in 5 factors: outcomes, advocacy, organizational justice, annual convention, and professional recognition. Discriminant function analysis results showed that, on the basis of these factors, the authors were able to correctly classify respondents as current vs former members, and current vs never been members. Current members, former members, and psychologists who never joined CPA were found to differ significantly on their rating of most factors. The factors relevant for retaining members differ from those that attract psychologists to join CPA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of group cohesion and mood in sport teams.

Perceptions of group cohesion and mood were investigated among netball, rowing, and rugby teams. Participants (N?=?415) completed the Group Environment Questionnaire and the Profile of Mood States—C. For task cohesion, high attraction to the group predicted low tension and anger and high group integration predicted low depression. For social cohesion, high attraction to the group predicted low tension, low depression, and high vigor, but group integration was not predictive of mood. Type of sport did not moderate cohesion–mood relationships, although significant between-sport differences in cohesion and mood scores were seen. Results are discussed in relation to the R. F. Baumeister and M. R. Leary (1995) proposition that the need to belong is a fundamental human motive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work groups: From the Hawthorne studies to work teams of the 1990s and beyond.

This article summarizes the Hawthorne studies related to work groups and their legacy and traces applications of work groups and related empirical research through the 1990s. A selective review of empirical studies of work group effectiveness conducted in work settings and published in the last 20 years addresses 4 questions: (a) What identifying features have field researchers used in operationally defining work groups? (b) What research strategies have been used, and to address what kinds of questions? (c) What criteria of work group effectiveness has the field research measured, using what sources of data? (d) What variables have researchers sought to link with measures of work group effectiveness? On the basis of answers to these questions, an agenda for future research about work groups and work teams is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kinetics of Thermal, Passive Oxidation of Nicalon Fibers

The oxidation of Nicalon fibers is a concern, because of its potential as a reinforcement of high-temperature composites, whose service conditions involve high-temperature, oxidizing environments. Two limiting types of oxidation mechanisms are often used to describe the kinetics: chemical-reaction-controlled oxidation, at small oxide thicknesses, and diffusion-controlled oxidation, at large oxide thicknesses. Neither mechanism can satisfactorily describe the intermediate region where the oxidation kinetics are controlled jointly by both the chemical reaction rate at the interface and the diffusion of oxygen through the oxide layer. To describe the entire oxidation process with a general relationship, one must consider all stages of the oxidation process, namely (i) adsorption of oxygen at the outer surface of the oxide, (ii) diffusion of oxygen from the outer surface toward the interface where oxidation occurs, and (iii) reaction at the interface to form a new layer of oxide. Previously, a very useful general relationship was derived for the oxidation kinetics for a flat plate, which could account for all three stages of oxidation. However, that equation is inadequate to describe the oxidation of cylindrical fibers, because the effective area for oxygen diffusion changes along the diffusion path and the oxidation interfacial area decreases as the oxide thickness increases for cylindrical fibers. In this paper, we have derived a general kinetic relationship for the oxidation of cylindrical fibers, which can account for all stages of oxidation. Comparison of the theory with experimental data of Nicalon fibers shows good agreement.     

Chemometric profiling of pre-climacteric Sri Lankan mango fruit (Mangifera indica L.)

There is no published information on the genotypic variation of major biochemical constituents in mango fruit endemic to Sri Lanka. Accordingly, non-structural carbohydrates, non-volatile organic acids and total phenolics were determined from the peel and pulp of pre-climacteric Sri Lankan mango cultivars (viz. Willard, Karutha Colomban, Vellai Colomban, Ampalavi, and Malgova) at three different maturity stages. Principal components analysis revealed distinct clustering of samples according to their biochemical profiles of peel and pulp at three maturity stages. Sugar concentrations generally declined with maturity in both peel and pulp except for cv. Willard. Fructose was the predominant sugar in both peel (56.2–106 mg/g dry weight (DW)) and pulp (67.4–141 mg/g DW), followed by glucose and sucrose. Starch concentration increased with maturity and was higher in pulp (26.0–55.0% DW) than peel (18.2–38.9% DW) at full mature stage. Dry matter as a proportion of fresh weight (FW) increased with maturity.     

e-Science Infrastructure for Digital Media Broadcasting

Because digital media management and distribution technologies face some of the same challenges that e-Science aims to address, this technology is a viable solution to meet the broadcasting domain's rigorous demands.     

Learning Task-Specific Object Recognition and Scene Understanding

In this paper, we present an approach to object recognition and scene understanding which integrates low-level image processing and high-level knowledge-based components. A novel machine learning system is presented which is used to acquire knowledge relating to a specific task. Learned feedback from high-level to low-level processes is introduced as a means of achieving robust task-specific segmentation. The system has been implemented and trained on a number of scenarios with differing tasks from which results are presented and discussed.