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The demand for electricity is increasing daily due to technological advancement, and ?luxurious lifestyles. Increasing utilization of electricity means the depletion of fossil fuel ?reserves. Thus, governments around the world are seeking alternative and sustainable ?sources of energy such as the solar powered system. The main purpose of this research is ?to develop a knowledge base on residential electric generation from the grid and solar ?energy. This paper examined the economic feasibility of using grid-tied residential ?photovoltaic (GRPV) system in Saudi Arabia with the HOMER software. Models ?forecasting the price of oil barrels through artificial neural networks (ANN) were also ?employed in the analysis. The study shows that an oil-rich country like Saudi Arabia has ?potential to utilize the GRPV system as an alternative source of energy. / This paper examined the economic feasibility of using grid-tied residential photovoltaic ??(GRPV) system in Saudi Arabia with the HOMER software. Models forecasting the ?price of oil barrels through artificial neural networks (ANN) were also employed in the ?analysis. The study shows that an oil-rich country like Saudi Arabia has potential to ?utilize the GRPV system as an alternative source of energy. This study provides a ?discussion of the potential for applying solar-powered and an assessment of the ?performance of existing systems based on collecting output data.?

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This master’s thesis is devoted to rifling technologies of the barrel bore of fire and gas arms. In cooperation with the company Winston Production, s.r.o. also enters into operation issues of selected manufacturing machine Zs 151 for barrel rifling. It contains an analysis of legislative demands on the technical documentation, description of the construction and function of machinery and materials for the creation of local operating safety rules for its operation. The part of work is also 3D model of the machine created in software SolidWorks.

The diploma thesis deals with the issue of a quality assessment of a bore of shotgun barrels. There are mentioned both definitions of a quality shotgun barrel and also a quality of shotgun barrel bore. In conclusion, there are presented particular proposals for evaluation of parameters of surface texture of forged shotgun barrel blanks.

Single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) is a unique approach to study the mechanical unfolding of proteins. SMFS unfolding experiments yield insight into how interactions stabilize a protein and guide its unfolding and refolding pathways. In contrast to various water-soluble proteins whose unfolding and refolding patterns have been characterized, only α-helical membrane proteins have been probed by SMFS. It was shown that α-helical membrane proteins unfold via many intermediates; this differs from the two-state unfolding process usually observed in water-soluble proteins. In membrane proteins, upon mechanically pulling the peptide end of the protein, single and grouped α-helices and polypeptide loops unfold in steps until the entire protein is unfolded. Whether the α-helices and loops unfold individually or cooperatively to form an unfolding intermediate depends on the interactions established within the membrane protein and the membrane. Each unfolding event relates to an unfolding intermediate with the sequence of these intermediates defining the unfolding pathway of the protein. β-barrel-forming membrane proteins are the second major group of membrane proteins and have not yet been studied by SMFS. To fill this void this study was designed to characterize interactions, unfolding, and refolding of the β-barrel forming outermembrane protein G (OmpG).Folding of transmembrane proteins, despite the important part these proteins play in every biological process in a cell, is studied in only a few examples. Of those only a handful were β-stranded membrane proteins (Tamm et al., 2004; Kleinschmidt et al., 2006). Current models describe that transmembrane β-barrels fold into the lipid membrane via two major steps. First the unfolded polypeptide interacts with the lipid surface where it then folds and inserts into the membrane (Kleinschmidt et al., 2006; Huysmans et al., 2010). Conventionally, thermal or chemical denaturation is used to study folding of membrane proteins. In most cases membrane proteins were solubilized in detergent or exposed to urea to be studied, conditions that are not compatible with In vivo conditions. This suggests that the folding pathways described so far may not be a realistic representation of such pathways in nature. SMFS represents a unique approach to study the unfolding and refolding of membrane proteins into the lipid membrane (Kedrov et al., 2006; Kessler et al., 2006). Using SMFS makes it possible to study unfolding and refolding of membrane proteins in their nativephysiological environment with controlled pH, electrolyte, temperature, and most importantly in the absence of any chemical denaturant or detergent. In this thesis, SMFS was utilized to unfold and refold OmpG in E coli lipid extract. Bulk unfolding experiments suggested that OmpG unfolds and folds reversibly and much faster than α-helical proteins (Conlan et al., 2000). The folding process is thought to be a coupled two-state membrane partition-folding reaction. To the contrary, the mechanical unfolding of OmpG consisted of many sequential unfolding intermediates. Our SMFS refolding experiments showed that a partially unfolded OmpG molecule also refolds via several sequential steps. The predominant refolding steps are defined by individual β-hairpins that could later assemble the transmembrane β-barrel of OmpG. In conclusion, the most probable unfolding and refolding pathways of OmpG as a membrane β-barrel protein go through the β-hairpins as the structural segments or unfolding-refolding intermediates and the process is a multi step one rather than the simple two state process. We also used SMFS to study the physical interactions that switch the functional state and gating of OmpG. The structural changes that gate OmpG have been previously described by X-ray crystallography (Yildiz et al., 2006). They showed when the pH changes from neutral to acidic the flexible extracellular loop L6 folds into the pore and closes the OmpG pore. Here, SMFS was used to structurally localize and quantify the interactions that are associated with the pH-dependent closure. At an acidic pH, a pH-dependent interaction at loop L6 was detected. This interaction changed the unfolding of loop L6 and β-strands 11 and 12, which connect loop L6. All other interactions detected within OmpG were found to be unaffected by changes in pH. These results provide a quantitative and mechanistic explanation of how pHdependent interactions change the folding of a peptide loop to gate the transmembrane pore. It has also been shown how the stability of OmpG is optimized so that pH changes modify only those interactions necessary to gate the transmembrane pore and there are no global changes in protein conformation or mechanical properties. In the next step of interactions study, dynamic SMFS (DFS) was applied to quantify the parameters characterizing the energy barriers in energy landscape for unfolding of the OmpG. Some of these parameters are: free energy of activation and distance of the transition state from the folded state. The pH-dependent functional switching of OmpG directs the protein along different regions at the unfolding energy landscape. The two functional states of OmpG sequential folding take the same unfolding pathway as β-hairpins I–IV. After the initial unfolding events, the unfolding pathways diverge. In the open state, the unfolding of β-hairpin V in one step precedes the unfolding of β-hairpin VI. In the closed state, β-hairpin V and β-strand S11 with a part of extracellular loop L6 unfold cooperatively, and subsequently β-strand S12 unfolds with the remaining loop L6. These two unfolding pathways in the open and closed states join again in the last unfolding step of β-hairpin VII. Also, the conformational change from the open to the closed state witnesses a difference in Xu and κ in the energy landscape that translates to rigidified extracellular loop L6 at the gating area. Thus, a change in the conformational state of OmpG not only bifurcates its unfolding pathways but also tunes its mechanical properties for optimum function.:Table of Contents INTRODUCTION:1 1.1 THE FIRST UNIT OF LIFE STARTED WITH MEMBRANE:1 1.2.1 CELL MEMBRANE STRUCTURE: 2 1.3 MEMBRANE PROTEINS:3 1.3.1 α-­‐HELICAL MEMBRANE PROTEINS:5 1.3.2 β-­‐BARREL MEMBRANE PROTEIN:5 1.4 MEMBRANE PROTEINS FOLDING:12 1.4.1 MODELS FOR α-­‐HELICAL MEMBRANE PROTEIN FOLDING:13 1.4.2 MODELS FOR β-­‐BARREL MEMBRANE PROTEIN FOLDING:15 1.5. GATING STUDY OF MEMBRANE PROTEINS:18 ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY:19 2.1 ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPE:19 2.1.1 HISTORY:19 2.1.2 PRINCIPLE:19 2.1.3 THE CANTILEVER:20 2.1.4 AFM MODES 23 2.2 SINGLE-­‐MOLECULE FORCE SPECTROSCOPY:25 2.2.1 DYNAMIC FORCE SPECTROSCOPY,(DYNAMIC SMFS):27 2.3 WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF USING ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY IN MEMBRANE PROTEIN STUDIES?:29 FOLDING MECHANISM OF OMPG:31 3.1 UNFOLDING PATTERN: ONEβ-­‐HAIRPIN AFTER THE OTHER:31 3.1.1 OUTER MEMBRANE PROTEIN G (OMPG):31 3.1.2 MECHANICAL UNFOLDING PATHWAYS OF THE MEMBRANE β-­‐BARREL PROTEIN OMPG:33 3.1.3 MATERIAL AND METHODS:34 3.1.4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:41 3.2 REFOLDING PATTERN: ONE Β-­‐HAIRPIN AFTER THE OTHER:48 3.2.1. EXPLORING REFOLDING PATHWAYS AND KINETICS OF THE MEMBRANE Β-­‐BARREL PROTEIN OMPG:48 3.2.2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES:49 3.2.3 RESULTS:50 3.2.4 DISCUSSION:52 INTERACTION STUDIES:59 4.1 PH-­‐DEPENDENT INTERACTIONS GUIDE THE FOLDING AND GATE THE TRANSMEMBRANE PORE OF THE β-­‐BARREL TRANSMEMBRANE PROTEIN OMPG:59 4.1.2 INTRODUCTION:59 4.1.2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES:61 4.1.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:62 4.2 DUAL ENERGY LANDSCAPE: THE FUNCTIONAL STATE OF THE OUTER MEMBRANE β-­‐BARREL PROTEIN OMPG MOLDS ITS UNFOLDING ENERGY LANDSCAPE:67 4.2.1 INTRODUCTION:67 4.2.2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES:71 4.2.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:74 4.2.3.1 FUNCTIONAL STATE OF OMPG DIRECTS ITS UNFOLDING ROUTE:74 4.2.3.2 QUANTIFYING THE UNFOLDING ENERGY BARRIERS OF OMPG IN THE CLOSED AND OPEN CONFORMATIONS:75 4.2.3.3 TRANSITION STATE DISTANCES OF UNFOLDING ENERGY BARRIERS:77 4.2.3.4 ACTIVATION FREE ENERGY OF Β-­‐STRANDS AND Β-­‐HAIRPINS:79 4.2.3.5 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF OMPG:83 4.2.3.6 MAPPING THE UNFOLDING ENERGY LANDSCAPES OF OMPG IN THE OPEN AND CLOSED STATES:85 4.2.4 CONCLUSION:86 OUTLOOK:89 5.1 INTRODUCTION:89 5.2 INTERACTION STUDY AND UNFOLDING ENERGY LANDSCAPE:90 5.3 MEMBRANE PROTEINF OLDING:92 REFRENCES:96 ABBREVIATIONS:110 SYMBOLS:111 PUBLICATIONS:113 ACKNOWLEDGMENT:114 DECLARATION: 115

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Chez les rongeurs, le traitement par le cortex à tonneaux de l'information sensorielle en provenance des vibrisses est mal compris. En effet, malgré l'aide fournie par l'organisation de ce cortex en une reproduction stricte de la topographie de l'appareil sensoriel, il a été difficile jusqu'à présent d'identifier de façon indiscutable le système de filtrage linéaire et non-linéaire qu'utilisent les neurones du cortex à tonneaux durant leur traitement des scènes tactiles auxquelles ils sont exposés. Pour mieux identifier ces traitements corticaux, nous avons développé un système de stimulation vibrissale permettant d'appliquer des déflections sur un grand nombre de vibrisses indépendamment, dans toutes les directions possibles et ce à travers une vaste gamme fréquentielle. En utilisant ce dispositif de stimulation multivibrissale durant des enregistrements extracellulaires de l'activité électrique des neurones du cortex à tonneaux de rats anesthésiés, nous avons pu identifier plus précisément le filtrage linéaire des stimulations vibrissales, qui s'avère similaire pour tous les neurones que nous avons pu enregistrer. Par ailleurs, en explorant les aspects non-linéaires du traitement effectué par ces neurones, nous avons noté qu'ils se séparent en deux familles distinctes : d'un côté des neurones "locaux" qui se sont avérés sensibles à des contrastes locaux dans les déflections multivibrissales. De l'autre, des neurones "globaux" capables au contraire de détecter des situations où les déflections sont similaires pour de nombreuses vibrisses. Enfin, en effectuant d'autres enregistrements dans la couche II/III du cortex à tonneaux, cette fois à l'aide d'un microscope deux-photons, nous avons pu noter que les neurones appartenant aux familles locales et globales étaient séparés en groupes spatialement distincts et que la position spatiale des neurones était plus généralement étroitement liée à l'ensemble de leurs propriétés de filtrage des déflections vibrissales.