41 research outputs found
A proven solution for Lebanon’s economic crisis: A currency board
Full text linkAbstract. Lebanon is currently facing a financial crisis marked by rising inflation rates and a black-market exchange rate that is significantly diverging day-by-day from the official exchange rate. In this paper, the author dives into Lebanon’s financial history and what actions undertaken by the government since the civil war have led to this crisis. After a thorough examination of the current economy, the author compares Lebanon’s present day financial crisis to the one faced by Bulgaria in the 1990s and concludes that the implementation of a currency board is a viable solution for restoring the strength of the Lebanese pound and ushering in financial stability.Keywords. Currency board, Lebanon, Bulgaria.JEL. E58; G01; L25
A biochemical investigation of actin disassembly mechanisms
Full text linkThe dynamic nature of the actin cytoskeleton enables the rapid shape changes that are necessary for processes such as wound healing, motility and division of cells. Disassembly of actin filaments is extremely critical for the reorganization of cell shape. The cell possesses several factors that depolymerize actin filaments in an environment that has a high concentration of polymerizable monomer. However current microscopic techniques preclude the direct observation of the dynamics of individual actin filaments that usually exist as part of highly crosslinked networks inside cells. Therefore, the mechanism(s) by which actin filaments disassemble inside cells remains unclear.
In this work we use a combination of single filament imaging of fluorescently labeled actin filaments as well as pyrene and FRET-based spectroscopy in order to reconstitute cellular disassembly in vitro in the presence of three factors: cofilin, coronin and Aip1. These three factors have been shown to be principally responsible for the disassembly activity of thymus extract. We describe here our discoveries regarding catastrophic whole filament destabilization of actin in the presence of the three factors. We also reinvestigated the role of Aip1 alone in cofilin-mediated depolymerization of actin filaments. We showed that Aip1 is not an actin capping protein as was previously thought, however it can destabilize cofilin-saturated stable filaments and potentiate cofilin’s severing and depolymerization activity. During the course of our work we also uncovered some insights on the biophysics of filament severing in the presence of cofilin.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2018-08-01The student, Ambika Nadkarni, accepted the attached license on 2016-07-12 at 15:34.The student, Ambika Nadkarni, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2016-07-12 at 15:43.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2016-07-13 at 16:45.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #9895 on 2016-11-10 at 12:20:33Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-10T18:27:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 2016-07-13Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 95365
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Au Revoir, Chantal [French]
No full textArticle translated and adapted in French on Chantal Akerman the artist and her exhibition at Ambika P3 curated by the author in the context of her untimely death
Au Revoir, Chantal
Full text linkArticle on Chantal Akerman the artist and her exhibition at Ambika P3 curated by the author in the context of her untimely death
Living apart together: Intimate Relationship across nations distance:Transnational Couples: Gender, Spirituality and Digitalisation
No full textIn the past decades the time honoured assumption that intimate couples stay under the same roof has been challenged, diverse forms of living arrangements are emerging where partners maintain separate residences, even across national borders. However, investigation of intimate relationship formation and maintenance across geographical borders is rather limited. This ongoing research project explores relationship among distant transnational couples, i.e. couples who are residing/ have resided in different countries (minimum one year), at least one of the partners in the Scandinavian context. Within a theoretical framework of gender related to emotional reflexivity (Holmes, 2014), spirituality and digital emotions, the history and dynamics of these relationships are explored, in the backdrop of transnationalism. In-depth interviews (face- to face and some online) dealing with the psycho- social aspects of togetherness and separation, visions about the future and suggestions to other distant couples are conducted with 20 couples/partners. The preliminary results show the challenges entailed in distant intimacy dynamics and their negotiations. The interactional state of being together and apart mutually enable and constrain each other in many ways. Quality time together, ‘fun’ memories construction, parting rituals, ‘systematic’ online contact, spiritual acceptance emerge as the resources. While the mobility costs (economic, temporal and affective), restrictive migration laws, pressure to have quality time, work/ life segmentation, social network related dilemmas emerge as burdens. However, being apart and together are intertwined for the transnational distant couples. The analysed ‘good practices’ will form the applied part for promoting the mental health and wellbeing of such couples. Abstract Text word count- 250 Submitted by Dr. Rashmi Singla (Presenter) & Ms. Ambika Varma co-author (independent researcher, Denmark
Understanding structure-function relations in heme-copper oxidase using myoglobin-based enzyme models
Full text linkHeme-copper oxygen reductases (HCOs) are respiratory enzymes that utilize a heme-copper center to perform the four-electron reduction of oxygen to water. The HCOs share significant structural and sequence homology to another class of metalloenzyme, nitric oxide reductase (NOR), that in turn, utilize a heme-nonheme diiron center to catalyze the two electron reduction of nitric oxide to nitrous oxide during biological denitrification processes. The homology between these two classes of enzymes is not just structural but also functional: the NORs can reduce oxygen completely to water and vice-versa. In this work, we have probed these similarities, yet certain crucial differences within the structure and function of HCOs and NORs, by using their simpler-myoglobin (Mb)-based enzymatic models.To begin with, we have attempted to understand the role of nonheme metal towards oxygen activation and reduction in HCOs. While HCOs and NORs have evolved from a common ancestral protein, copper is specifically chosen (over iron) as the nonheme metal in the catalytic center of HCOs. An elegant method to elucidate this choice would be to swap the copper in HCOs with iron or other nonheme metals and probe the resulting changes in oxygen reduction reactivity. However, doing so has been impossible in HCOs due to the inherent complexity of its membranous structure. As an alternate, we have used a myoglobin mutant (FeBMb) that not only possesses a heme-nonheme metal center similar to HCOs, but can also bind copper, iron and their redox-inactive analogue zinc at its nonheme metal center. Oxygen reduction enzymatic assays reveal that Fe-FeBMb and Cu-FeBMb exhibit 11-fold and 30-fold enhancements in oxidase activity, respectively, as compared to Zn-FeBMb suggesting the unequivocal role of nonheme metal as an electron donor to oxygen. Moreover, higher reduction potential of copper, as well as the enhanced weakening of O-O bond from the higher electron density in the d-orbital of copper are central to its higher oxidase activity as against iron. Overall, this work resolves a long-standing question in bioenergetics, and renders a chemical-biological basis for designing future oxygen reduction catalysts. Moving on, we have focused on the differences in the reduction potential (E°’) of catalytic heme iron in HCOs and NORs. While most HCOs exhibit significantly high heme E°’ values (+180 to +365 mV), NORs typically exhibit heme E°’ in the lower range (-170 to 70 mV). To understand this difference and its impact on enzymatic activity (if any), we have systematically tuned heme E°’ values of Mb-based HCO and NOR mimics using two strategies: (1) modulation of H-bonding interactions of heme ligands and (2) use of different heme types. The resulting HCO/NOR mimics display ~ 200 mV variation in heme E°’ values. Detailed kinetic, electrochemical and theoretical studies on the HCO mimics reveal that higher heme E°’ favors fast oxygen binding and electron transfer to its catalytic center, both of which are required for fast and efficient oxygen reduction reaction. The low heme E°’ of NORs, on the other hand, helps them maintain required electron density on the heme-bound NO for efficient N-N coupling to form N2O.
Overall, these results show how Nature has efficiently fine-tuned E° in metalloproteins to control their substrate affinities, electron transfer rates and overall enzymatic activities. In particular, heme proteins exhibit a wide variety of heme E° (spanning over 1 V), and understanding the reasons behind the same and associated implications on their enzymatic activity will help us understand these proteins in greater detail.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2018-05-01The student, Ambika Bhagi, accepted the attached license on 2016-04-19 at 12:48.The student, Ambika Bhagi, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2016-04-19 at 13:24.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2016-04-20 at 16:41.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #9340 on 2016-07-07 at 14:17:24Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-07T21:17:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3
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Previous issue date: 2016-04-20Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 93283
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Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemLimited Restriction Lifted for Item 93283 on 2018-07-08T09:15:20Z
Design and analysis of an online marketplace for retweets
No full textThesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2016.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 39-40).In a world where attention is limited, popularity is an asset that allows those endowed with it to command attention on demand. Popularity, which we can approximate as the number of contacts in a person's network, allows journalists to share their stories with wider audiences, musicians to promote their creations to more fans, and entrepreneurs to secure more crowdfunding. However, since most modern social networking platforms treat popularity as non-tradeable and private, people are unable to leverage the popularity of their peers in their marketing efforts. If users were able to access the social networks of their close friends, they could multiply their reach without expending the effort normally necessary to build an expansive network. Here I present Shout!, a platform that allows friends to act as a group to coordinate their social media presence. Shout! is an online marketplace for retweets we launched in 2016. With Shout!, users can set up micro-contracts with their friends to exchange future retweets. Shout! allows the user to trigger these retweets through their friends' accounts when they need them. Shout! provides value to its users by allowing them to trade their social capital. In this thesis, I examine the meaning of social capital and the link between social media interactions and more traditional forms of capital. I then describe the design of Shout! and the major decisions made when building it. Finally, I evaluate the use of Shout! by early adopters and use the data collected to explore open research questions, such as the relative prices of retweets between people with different levels of popularity. Based on preliminary analysis, we find that prices of retweets remain within a small range even as popularity levels have much more variation. We also find that existing online friendship seems to be a strong factor in deciding who to trade with on Shout!. I explain the implications of our findings and outline our plans for future improvements to the platform.by Ambika M. Krishnamachar.M. Eng
Konsekvenser av oplanerade verksamhetsavbrott orsakat av fel på medicinteknisk utrustning : En studie inom Länssjukhuset i Kalmar med fokus på drift, säkerhet och kvalitet
No full textTitle: The issue of unplanned stoppages caused by failure in medical technology equipment – A study within the hospital of Kalmar with a focus on manage-ment, security and quality Author: Anna Förster, Ambika Linder, Sandra Nyqvist Tutor: Thomas Karlsson Institution: Linnaeus School of Business and Economics - Linnaeus University Kalmar Date: 2011-01-14 Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine unplanned stoppages caused by medical technology equipment failure in the healthcare operation within the hospital of Kalmar. Our study is based on a number of specifically selected incidents which show the consequences these disruptions cause in management, security and quality within the operation. Our intention was also to examine what role the medical technology department of the hospital plays in the care production operation during these unplanned stoppages. Method: Through a qualitative study we have generated material from a number of interviews with staff working in the hospital of Kalmar. These interviews have given us a deeper perspective of a number of cases that we have chosen to study more closely and which relate to unavailable medical technology equipment. The interviewed respondents have contributed with their knowledge about the current incidents. From a hermeneutical interpretive perspective we have based on knowledge received about the subject, connected the collected empirics with our theoretical frame of reference. Conclusion: We see that management is affected negatively in situations where medical technology equipment has been unavailable, because of an ineffective use of resources in terms of rooms, equipment and personnel. In the cases studied we consider patient security to be relatively good. Nevertheless, the quality within the hospital of Kalmar is affected negatively during these unplanned stoppages, due to service dissatisfaction among some of the patients. Finally we conclude that care staff show a good level of confidence in the medical technology department as a support function and that their availability is highly appreciated. Keywords: Medical technology equipment, unplanned stoppage, maintenance, management, security, qualit
Konsekvenser av oplanerade verksamhetsavbrott orsakat av fel på medicinteknisk utrustning : En studie inom Länssjukhuset i Kalmar med fokus på drift, säkerhet och kvalitet
No full textTitle: The issue of unplanned stoppages caused by failure in medical technology equipment – A study within the hospital of Kalmar with a focus on manage-ment, security and quality Author: Anna Förster, Ambika Linder, Sandra Nyqvist Tutor: Thomas Karlsson Institution: Linnaeus School of Business and Economics - Linnaeus University Kalmar Date: 2011-01-14 Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine unplanned stoppages caused by medical technology equipment failure in the healthcare operation within the hospital of Kalmar. Our study is based on a number of specifically selected incidents which show the consequences these disruptions cause in management, security and quality within the operation. Our intention was also to examine what role the medical technology department of the hospital plays in the care production operation during these unplanned stoppages. Method: Through a qualitative study we have generated material from a number of interviews with staff working in the hospital of Kalmar. These interviews have given us a deeper perspective of a number of cases that we have chosen to study more closely and which relate to unavailable medical technology equipment. The interviewed respondents have contributed with their knowledge about the current incidents. From a hermeneutical interpretive perspective we have based on knowledge received about the subject, connected the collected empirics with our theoretical frame of reference. Conclusion: We see that management is affected negatively in situations where medical technology equipment has been unavailable, because of an ineffective use of resources in terms of rooms, equipment and personnel. In the cases studied we consider patient security to be relatively good. Nevertheless, the quality within the hospital of Kalmar is affected negatively during these unplanned stoppages, due to service dissatisfaction among some of the patients. Finally we conclude that care staff show a good level of confidence in the medical technology department as a support function and that their availability is highly appreciated. Keywords: Medical technology equipment, unplanned stoppage, maintenance, management, security, qualit
To study the linear and nonlinear optical properties of Se-Te-Bi-Sn/PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone) nanocomposites
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