An isolated hybrid system comprised of a dispatchable and a non-dispatchable power generation sources, is proposed to supply the load of a remote village in the west region of Haiti. The wind speed data and load data of this remote village are used to study the system. The non-dispatchable generation comes from a nature-dependent wind turbine, and the dispatchable one is a diesel generator. Using MATLAB/Simulink, dynamic simulations are performed to investigate the interaction between these two power sources for the load management, and the voltage and frequency behaviors during wind speed and load variations. Economic analyses of the system are also conducted. The cost of energy (COE), energy payback time (PBT), internal rate of return (IRR) and avoided cost (AC) of CO2¬, NOx and PM (Particles Materials) of the hybrid system are computed, and results are compared with those of the baseline diesel only case. Simulation results show that the wind turbine and the diesel generator can be operated suitably in parallel, and the economic analyses show the positive benefits of wind generation in reducing COE and increasing the avoided cost (AC) of emitted pollutions.

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To induce the production of antibodies, exogenous antigens are taken up and degraded in antigen presenting cells in vivo. Since this process inevitably lead to distort antigen¡¦s structure, it is likely that some arising antibodies following immunization may not react appropriately with native protein. In the present study, comparative studies on the reactivity of cobrotoxin and recombinant cobrotoxin toward anti-cobrotoxin antibodies were carried out. CD spectra and acrylamide quenching of Trp fluorescence showed that global structure of recombinant cobrotoxin was different from that of native toxin. Results of ELISA and dot blotting assay revealed that recombinant cobrotoxin had a superior reactivity toward anti-cobrotoxin antibodies than native toxin did. Reactivity with antibody fractions specifically against N-terminal region or C-terminal region of cobrotoxin also showed the same results. The binding of recombinant cobrotoxin with antibodies was stronger than that of cobrotoxin as revealed by ammonium thiocyanate elution assay. Recombinant protein was susceptible to reduce its antigenicity after tryptic digestion compared to cobrotoxin. Distorting disulfide linkages at C-terminus caused a marked decrease in immunoreactivity of recombinant cobrotoxin, indicating that anti-cobrotoxin antibodies mostly recognized conformation-dependent epitopes. Moreover, cobrotoxin and recombinant cobrotoxin showed a similar immunoreactivity under denaturing condition. Taken together, these results suggest that native conformation with cobrotoxin may unfavorably impede the interaction of some epitope(s) with anti-cobrotoxin antibodies.

<p>Business profits constitute the main part of income derived through international business and these profits are only to be taxed in the home state of the enterprise. However, if the enterprise conducts business in a host state through a PE, the profits attributable to the PE are taxable in the host state. Article 7 of the OECD Model Tax determines the profits attributable to the PE.</p><p>Nevertheless, Member States have interpreted Article 7 of the OECD Model Tax Convention in various ways. In order to provide consensus the OECD adopted an authorised OECD approach for attributing profits to PEs.</p><p>The first part of the purpose of this thesis is to study the Swedish approach for attributing profits to dependent agent PEs in relation to the authorised OECD approach. An enterprise from the home state can be considered to have a dependent agent PE in the host state if it conducts business in the host state through a dependent agent located therein. This is provided that the agent has the authority to conclude contracts in the name of the enterprise and exercises this authority regularly.</p><p>Under the authorised OECD approach for profit attribution to dependent agent PEs it is possible to allocate profits to the PE in excess of the arm’s length remuneration paid to the dependent agent. Thereby, the OECD has adopted the dual taxpayer approach as the authorised OECD approach.</p><p>According to the author’s opinion the Swedish perspective regarding profit attribution to dependent agent PEs differs from the authorised OECD approach as the dual taxpayer approach so far has not been applied in Sweden. Furthermore, it differs as the attribution of capital to PEs is not allowed according to case law and as far as the recognition of internal dealings is concerned.</p><p>When the OECD adopted the dual taxpayer approach as the authorised OECD approach another method was available; the single taxpayer approach. In line with this approach no further profits in excess of the arm’s length remuneration to the dependent agent can be attributed to the dependent agent PE. However, the single taxpayer approach was rejected as the authorised OECD approach, which has lead to disagreement within the international tax community.</p><p>Therefore, the second part of the purpose of this thesis is to study to what extent the authorised OECD approach is sustained. This is done by analysing reactions to the single and dual taxpayer approach among business and academic circles.</p><p>The author believes that reactions against the dual taxpayer approach mainly arise in situations when an enterprise in the host state gives rise to a dependent agent PE. Therefore, the authorised OECD approach should have recognised that different types of dependent agent PEs might arise and the approach is only sustained to the extent that a person belonging to the foreign enterprise leads to the existence of a dependent agent PE.</p>

<p>Telecommunication systems are under constant development. Currently 3GPP is working on an evolution of the 3G-standard, under the name 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE). Some of the goals are higher throughput and higher peak bit rates. A crucial part to achieve the higher performance is channel dependent scheduling (CDS). CDS is to assign users when they have favorable channel conditions. Channel dependent scheduling demands accurate and timely channel quality reports. These channel quality indication (CQI) reports can possibly take up a large part of the allocated uplink. This thesis report focuses on the potential gains from channel dependent scheduling in contrast to the loss in uplink to reporting overhead.</p><p>System simulations show that the gain from channel dependent scheduling is substantial but highly cell layout dependent. The gain with frequency and time CDS, compered to CDS in time domain only, is also large, around 20\%. With a full uplink it can still be a considerable gain in downlink performance if a large overhead is used for channel quality reports. This gives a loss in uplink performance, and if the uplink gets to limited it will severely affect both uplink and downlink performance negatively.</p><p>How to schedule and transmit CQI-reports is also under consideration. A suggested technique is to transmit the CQI reports together with uplink data. With a web traffic model simulations show that a high uplink load is required to get the reports often enough. The overhead also gets unnecessary large, if the report-size only depends on the allocated capacity.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-153).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 279-285). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

There is a well-known connection between the structure and dynamics that is present in molecular and colloidal systems. Using this connection as a guide we are able to design interparticle potentials that optimizes the diffusivity of a single particle. While structure-dynamic correlations provide the insight that diffusion could be enhanced, the effect of this enhancement on the dynamics of neighboring particles is more difficult to quantify. A novel method for calculating position-dependent dynamics is introduced that can be easily implemented into existing simulation protocols. The computational requirements are very low compared to existing methods and this technique can also be applied to a wide variety of systems, including experiments where particle trajectories can be determined. Using this method, the position-dependent diffusivity of solvent particles in the vicinity of a tracer particle can be measured. This information allows for determination of the microscopic changes that take place as a result of the optimization discussed above. To study the effect of a non-continuum solvent, we design a system that eliminates inhomogeneous structuring near an interface. Hydrodynamic theory can predict the position-dependent diffusivity of a sphere in continuum solvent. Comparing these systems not only highlights the difference in position-dependent dynamics for continuum and non-continuum solvents, but is a starting point to study what happens to dynamics when structure is reintroduced. This allows us to answer many other questions about the relationships between structure and dynamics. While these connections have been studied extensively for average properties, they have not been explored for their position-dependent counterparts. For bulk fluids, the insertion probability and two-body excess entropy has proven useful for predicting average dynamic properties. We develop expressions for the position-dependent versions of both of these quantities. We show that when using the appropriate reference state the position-dependent diffusivity can be qualitatively related to the insertion probability. / text

The leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) is a reptile species in which embryonic temperature contributes both to sex determination and within- sex polymorphisms. Its life history makes the leopard gecko a model system for seeking ontogenic and proximate explanations for within-sex variation in sexually dimorphic behavior and neurophysiology, necessary attributes for reproductive success. For my dissertation I have incorporated the role of androgens that potentially modulate incubation temperature effects on behavioral and brain variation, which I approached using embryo and adult leopard geckos. First, I found that that the bias of same-sex clutch siblings is primarily incubation temperature- dependent and any maternal or genetic effects on same-sex clutch siblings are secondary. Second, I found that testosterone concentrations in the yolk-albumen were higher in eggs of late development than early development at 26 °C, a female-producing incubation temperature, but did not differ from eggs incubated at another female-biased temperature. This increase in testosterone concentrations during the temperature sensitive period in putative females is a finding opposite of reported trends in most other reptiles studied to date. Further, I found that the embryonic environment influences male sociosexual investigation in the absence of gonadal hormones. Lastly, in adult males of 32.5 °C, a male-biased incubation temperature, I found that the phosphoprotein DARPP-32 that is activated by the D1 dopamine receptor in limbic brain regions is correlated to this sociosexual investigatory behavior. Neurons immunopositive for phosphorylated DARPP-32 were not only less dense in the nucleus accumbens of males who spent more time with other males, but also more dense in the preoptic area of males who spent more time with females. The use of phosphorylated DARPP-32 as marker for sociosexual exposure is novel in a lizard species. Taken together, in support of previous studies, these results show that differences in embryonic environment stem primarily from incubation temperature, can explain behavioral differences in adulthood in the absence of hormones, and, in concert with hormonal manipulation, can influence neuronal marker sensitivity to sociosexual exposure. / text

Despite the medical advances in recent decades, cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains one of the leading causes of mortality in most developing countries. Ongoing efforts have been focused on evaluating new strategies targeting on novel risk factors. Vitamin D deficiency, a previously neglected condition, has recently attracted much attention from the scientific community with its potential extra-skeletal effects. There is accumulating evidence from epidemiological studies that a suboptimal 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] level is associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease, and various traditional CVD risk factors including hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM) and metabolic syndrome. Several theories have been proposed to explain these relationships but none receive universal recognition. There is recent laboratory evidence that vitamin D may exert specific effects in patients with DM. However, relationships between vitamin D deficiency and supplementation on vascular function in this group of patients are unclear. In this dissertation, I sought to explore the effects of vitamin D deficiency on vascular function in patients with type II DM in a cross-sectional study. In the later part, the results of a randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of daily vitamin D supplementation in type II DM patients are presented and discussed. The cross-sectional study (Chapter 3) investigated the association of vitamin D status with endothelial function as measured by brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and circulating endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) numbers in 280 patients with type II DM. The results showed that suboptimal vitamin D status was more common among patients with DM. Furthermore, patients with vitamin D deficiency had significantly lower brachial FMD (mean difference = -1.43%, 95% CI: -2.31 to -0.55, P = 0.001) and CD133/KDR+ EPC counts (mean difference = -0.12%, 95% CI: -0.21 to -0.02, P = 0.022) than those with sufficient vitamin D after adjustment for age, sex and cardiovascular risk factors, including HbA1c levels. Based on these positive results, the objectives of the randomized controlled trial (Chapter 4) were to study and confirm the effects of daily oral vitamin D supplementation on the vascular function in this group of patients. Over a 12-week period, 100 DM patients with suboptimal vitamin D status were randomized to receive 5,000 IU/day vitamin D or placebo. There were no reported adverse events including hypercalcemia, although a slight increase in serum ionized calcium (treatment effect 0.037 mmol/L, P = 0.018) was recorded in the vitamin D group. Despite a significant improvement in serum 25(OH)D in the treatment group, supplementation of vitamin D did not result in any significant improvement in vascular function as determined by FMD, circulating EPC count or arterial stiffness (all P > 0.05). Furthermore, the serum level of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, oxidative stress markers, low- and high-density lipoprotein and glycated haemoglobin were also similar between two groups (all P > 0.05). The results of this study did not support a therapeutic role of supplementation with vitamin D for cardiovascular benefits. In conclusion, the results of these studies demonstrated that deficiency of vitamin D was associated with worse vascular function in patients with type II DM. However, vitamin D supplementation did not result in any significant benefits on vascular function or improvement in traditional CVD risk factors in DM patients. Further large clinical trials on vitamin D supplementation in patients with DM using clinical outcomes rather than surrogate CVD markers are necessary to confirm its benefits. / published_or_final_version / Medicine / Master / Master of Research in Medicine