53,102 research outputs found
Moderating Urbanization and Managing Growth: How Can Colombo Prevent the Emerging Chaos?
No full textThis paper examines urbanization trends, the growth of Colombo and its present state of development. It looks at the approaches to the planned interventions in the city and demonstrates how a uni-directional urban development has had a detrimental impactColombo, urban development, managing urbanization, planning, housing,
Development of the hub port of Colombo, Sri Lanka
No full textThe Port of Colombo, Sri Lanka, is an important hub port in the Indian Ocean. A hub port is a port with mainly transhipment (and in this case container) throughput, which means that most of the cargo is not for the country itself, but for countries in the region. The yearly container throughput at the Port of Colombo reached its full capacity of 1.7 million TEU per year in 1997. Increasing waiting times for ships calling at the port are a result of this. Because of the costs of a waiting ship, shipping lines will choose other ports in the region such as Singapore, Salalah (Oman) or Dubai (United Arab Emirates) for their ships to go to. The aim of this study is to develop a plan for a New Container Terminal, which will give the Port of Colombo enough container throughput capacity for the next 25 years: till the year 2025.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
A 2 h periodic variation in the low-mass X-ray binary Ser X-1
No full textSpectroscopy of the low-mass X-ray binary Ser X-1 using the Gran Telescopio Canarias have revealed a ?2 h periodic variability that is present in the three strongest emission lines. We tentatively interpret this variability as due to orbital motion, making it the first indication of the orbital period of Ser X-1. Together with the fact that the emission lines are remarkably narrow, but still resolved, we show that a main-sequence K dwarf together with a canonical 1.4 M? neutron star gives a good description of the system. In this scenario, the most likely place for the emission lines to arise is the accretion disc, instead of a localized region in the binary (such as the irradiated surface or the stream-impact point), and their narrowness is due instead to the low inclination (?10°) of Ser X-1
Orbit design for future SpaceChip swarm missions
No full textThe effect of solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag on the orbital dynamics of satellites-on-a-chip (SpaceChips) is exploited to design long-lived orbits about the Earth. The orbit energy gain due to asymmetric solar radiation pressure, considering the Earth shadow, is used to balance the energy loss due to atmospheric drag. Future missions for a swarm of SpaceChips are proposed, where a number of small devices are released from a conventional spacecraft to perform spatially distributed measurements of the conditions in the ionosphere and exosphere. It is shown that the orbit lifetime can be extended and indeed selected through solar radiation pressure and the end-of-life re-entry of the swarm can be ensured, by exploiting atmospheric drag
Review of the book Unbegrenzte moglichkeiten: Amerikanisierung in Deutschland und Frankreich (1900-1933) by Egbert Klautke
No full textDr. Jeff R. Schutts (Douglas College) reviews the book Unbegrenzte Moglichkeiten: Amerikanisierung in Deutschland und Frankreich (1900-1933) by Egbert Klautke (2005).Final article published
R&D location in dynamic industry environments
No full textWe study firms' optimal R&D location strategies in a dynamic industry model with competition in product quality. In light of potential future inwards and outwards spillovers firms make their location choices relying on heuristic strategies that are based on the expected present values associated with alternative location patterns. Using a simulation analysis, we show how the strategies of innovators and imitators differ and how they depend on whether firms operate in strongly or weakly innovative industry environments. We also characterize how firms' location choices should account for the innovativeness of the competitors active in a location
Complementary Assets, Start-Ups and Incentives to Innovate
No full textColombo L, Dawid H. Complementary Assets, Start-Ups and Incentives to Innovate. International Journal of Industrial Organization. 2016;44:177-190.We examine to what extent market conditions facilitating
start-up formation affect firms' R&D investment and profits. We consider a model in which R&D efforts of an incumbent firm generate partly tacit technological know-how embodied in a key R&D employee, who might use it to form a start-up. The availability of complementary assets influences whether new firms are created and determine expected profits for start-up's founders.
A large availability of complementary assets has the direct effect that the generation of start-ups is fostered. However, as a strategic effect, the incentives of incumbents to invest in R&D may be reduced because of the increased danger of knowledge loss occurring through start-up formation. We fully characterize the effects of an increase in the availability of complementary assets, showing that counter-intuitively there are cases in which it induces an increase in incumbents' R&D investment
Synthesis of Unnatural Alfa-N-linked Glycopeptides with Potential Antifreeze Activity
No full textThe synthesis of neo-glycoconjugates has been gaining much attention in recent years due to the relevance of glycopeptides and glycoproteins in many biological processes.[i] Our group has been actively dedicating its efforts to the synthesis of α-N-linked glycosylamides and glycopeptides.[ii] α-N-linked glycopeptides are unnatural molecules, since they display an α linkage between the peptide side chain and the sugar moiety, unlike natural glycopeptides which connect the peptide to the glycan through a β-N-glycosidic bond. This novel type of glycosylation of peptides could introduce modifications that can mimic and/or interfere with molecular recognition events.[iii] Direct glycosylation of peptide chains is not viable for the synthesis of molecules with α-N-linked configuration, since the corresponding α-glycosyl amines isomerise to the β-anomers. Only very recently Nα-Fmoc-protected glycosyl amino acids have been efficiently and stereoselectively synthesized and linearly incorporated into a peptide sequence.[iii] In the present paper these novel building blocks have been employed for the synthesis of complex structures that resemble antifreeze glycopeptides (Figure 1).[iv] These sequences were prepared using solid phase synthesis with Fmoc protocol, experimenting with different conditions and also using microwave assisted solid phase synthesis, in an effort to enhance the reactivity of our unnatural building block. The α-N-linked glycopeptides were obtained with modest yields, their secondary structure was assessed by circular dichroism and their antifreeze properties were evaluated in the group of Prof. Robert N. Ben. Despite the fact that our compounds do not show significant antifreeze activity, this work constitutes the first attempt towards the synthesis of complex α-N-linked glycopeptides and has been useful to understand the behaviour, sometimes unexpected, of these molecules, in terms of reactivity and stability. [i] D. P. Gamblin, E. M. Scanlan, B. G. Davis, Chem. Rev. 2009, 109, 131-163. [ii] a) F. Nisic, A. Bernardi, Carbohydr. Res. 2011,346, 465-71. b) C. Colombo, A. Bernardi,Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2011, 3911–3919. [iii] F. Marcelo, F. J. Cañada, S. André, C. Colombo, F. Doro, H. J. Gabius, A. Bernardi, J. Jiménez-Barbero. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2OB07135E. [iv] a) Garner, J.; Harding, M. M. ChemBioChem 2010, 11 2489-2498. b) Leclere, M; Kwok, K. B.; Luke K. W.; Allan, D. S.; Ben, R. N. Bioconjugate Chem. 2011, 22, 1804-1810
Orbit design for future SpaceChip swarm missions in a planetary atmosphere
No full textThe effect of solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag on the orbital dynamics of satellites-on-a-chip (SpaceChips) is exploited to design equatorial long-lived orbits about the oblate Earth. The orbit energy gain due to asymmetric solar radiation pressure, considering the Earth's shadow, is used to balance the energy loss due to atmospheric drag. Future missions for a swarm of SpaceChips are proposed, where a number of small devices are released from a conventional spacecraft to perform spatially distributed measurements of the conditions in the ionosphere and exosphere. It is shown that the orbit lifetime can be extended and indeed selected through solar radiation pressure and the end-of-life re-entry of the swarm can be ensured, by exploiting atmospheric drag
Letter from R. H. Ford to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1860
No full textR. H. Ford (letter author) is the brother of Henry L. Ford. The letter asks if the recently deceased Henry L. Ford was due anything from the government, which would be left to his father, William Ford
- …
