The article presents the principles of shaping material systems of modern building joints in terms of thermal and humidity requirements. An integral part of the work is the calculation of the ...physical parameters of the connection between the external wall and the window using a computer program. The choice of material solutions for construction joints should be based on calculations and analyzes of their physical parameters. The physical parameters of the connection between the external wall and the window in the cross-section through the lintel depend on the arrangement of the material layers of the joint: e.g. type and thickness of thermal insulation, window location. Improper shaping of the arrangement of material layers results in increased heat losses in the form of heat flux Φ W and linear heat transfer coefficient Ψ W/(m·K) and a decrease in temperature on the internal surface of the partition at the thermal bridge, which may lead to the risk of the occurrence of condensation on the inner surface of the partition.
Enzymes with a protein kinase fold transfer phosphate from adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) to substrates in a process known as phosphorylation. Here, we show that the
meta-effector SidJ adopts a ...protein kinase fold, yet unexpectedly catalyzes protein polyglutamylation. SidJ is activated by host-cell calmodulin to polyglutamylate the SidE family of ubiquitin (Ub) ligases. Crystal structures of the SidJ-calmodulin complex reveal a protein kinase fold that catalyzes ATP-dependent isopeptide bond formation between the amino group of free glutamate and the γ-carboxyl group of an active-site glutamate in SidE. We show that SidJ polyglutamylation of SidE, and the consequent inactivation of Ub ligase activity, is required for successful
replication in a viable eukaryotic host cell.
Abstract
The RNA genome of SARS-CoV-2 contains a 5′ cap that facilitates the translation of viral proteins, protection from exonucleases and evasion of the host immune response
1–4
. How this cap is ...made in SARS-CoV-2 is not completely understood. Here we reconstitute the
N
7- and 2′-
O
-methylated SARS-CoV-2 RNA cap (
7Me
GpppA
2′-
O
-Me
) using virally encoded non-structural proteins (nsps). We show that the kinase-like nidovirus RdRp-associated nucleotidyltransferase (NiRAN) domain
5
of nsp12 transfers the RNA to the amino terminus of nsp9, forming a covalent RNA–protein intermediate (a process termed RNAylation). Subsequently, the NiRAN domain transfers the RNA to GDP, forming the core cap structure GpppA-RNA. The nsp14
6
and nsp16
7
methyltransferases then add methyl groups to form functional cap structures. Structural analyses of the replication–transcription complex bound to nsp9 identified key interactions that mediate the capping reaction. Furthermore, we demonstrate in a reverse genetics system
8
that the N terminus of nsp9 and the kinase-like active-site residues in the NiRAN domain are required for successful SARS-CoV-2 replication. Collectively, our results reveal an unconventional mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 caps its RNA genome, thus exposing a new target in the development of antivirals to treat COVID-19.
Farms need to invest in order to earn incomes and maintain their competitive edge. However, the scale and extent of investments must be aligned with resources of other productive inputs, primarily ...including land, because otherwise there is risk of overinvestment. Since 2004, Central and Eastern European countries have been provided with access to investment support programs; these are non-repayable aid funds which can potentially lead to overinvestment issues. Therefore, this paper attempts to answer the question on the scale of overinvestment in the countries covered. This is all the more important since that problem has rarely been addressed in economic and agricultural research. The study presented in this paper is unique in that the research tasks are based on unpublished Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) microdata for 5839 selected Central and Eastern European farms provided by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI). Based on variables relating to the amount of productive inputs and production volumes, the authors developed their own typology of farms which includes the following categories: optimum investment levels (the growth rate of labor productivity is greater than growth in the assets-to-land ratio); relative overinvestment (while labor productivity grows, it does so at a slower rate than the assets-to-land ratio); absolute overinvestment (labor productivity declines while the assets-to-land ratio grows); underinvestment (decline in both labor productivity and the assets-to-land ratio). The authors demonstrated that members of the 'absolute overinvestment' group made flagrant mistakes in investment planning and implementation, whereas members of the 'relative overinvestment' group did record an improvement in labor productivity which ultimately can be considered a positive outcome. Underinvested farms were a very small minority in each country. In addition to filling a gap in the methodology for determining agricultural overinvestment, this paper also indicates the scale of that issue in Central and Eastern European countries. This study may be of importance both to farms (as guidelines for investment planning) and to agricultural policymakers who develop investment support programs.
It is estimated that about 1/4th of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may be caused by the global food system. Reducing the GHG emissions from food production is a major challenge in the context of ...the projected growth of the world's population, which is increasing demand for food. In this context, the goal should be to achieve the lowest possible emission intensity of the food production system, understood as the amount of GHG emissions per unit of output. The study aimed to calculate the emission intensity of food production systems and to specify its determinants based on a panel regression model for 14 countries, which accounted for more than 65% of food production in the world between 2000 and 2014. In this article, emission intensity is defined as the amount of GHG emissions per value of global output. Research on the determinants of GHG emissions related to food production is well documented in the literature; however, there is a lack of research on the determinants of the emission intensity ratio for food production. Hence, the original contribution of this paper is the analysis of the determinants of GHG emissions intensity of food production systems. The study found the decreased of emission intensity from an average of more than 0.68 kg of CO2 equivalent per USD 1 worth of food production global output in 2000 to less than 0.46 in 2014. The determinants of emission intensity decrease included the yield of cereals, the use of nitrogen fertilizers, the agriculture material intensity, the Human Development Index, and the share of fossil fuel energy consumption in total energy use. The determinants of growth of emission intensity of food production systems included GDP per capita, population density, nitrogen fertilizer production, utilized agriculture area, share of animal production, and energy use per capita.
Various methods can be used to reduce energy consumption in buildings. One of them is the tightening of energy requirements, which, like other methods, cannot result in a worsening of the indoor ...environmental quality. The article presents a study on the impact of changes in the thermal insulation of the building envelope on the energy demand, heating costs, and emissions. Mathematical models of the dependence of the index of annual usable energy demand for heating (EUH) of a residential house on the thermal transmittance coefficients (Ui) of selected building elements were developed. Values of Ui were adopted at three levels, corresponding to the maximum required values—as approved in Polish law for the periods from 2014, 2017, and 2021. The analyses were conducted for the location of the building in three of the five climate zones of Poland. It turned out that the differences in the energy demand in various locations in Poland amount to 32.6%. The change in Ui in the analyzed period causes a decrease of EUH by almost 27%. Financial savings and a reduction of emissions strongly depend on the fuel used in the building. Increasing the level of thermal insulation of walls increases the perceptible temperature in rooms by 1.2–1.5%.
We exploit a few- to many-body approach to study strongly interacting dipolar bosons in the quasi-one-dimensional system. The dipoles attract each other while the short range interactions are ...repulsive. Solving numerically the multiatom Schrödinger equation, we discover that such systems can exhibit not only the well-known bright soliton solutions but also novel quantum droplets for a strongly coupled case. For larger systems, basing on microscopic properties of the found few-body solution, we propose a new equation for a density amplitude of atoms. It accounts for fermionization for strongly repelling bosons by incorporating the Lieb-Liniger energy in a local density approximation and approaches the standard Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) in the weakly interacting limit. Not only does such a framework provide an alternative mechanism of the droplet stability, but it also introduces means to further analyze this previously unexplored quantum phase. In the limiting strong repulsion case, yet another simple multiatom model is proposed. We stress that the celebrated Lee-Huang-Yang term in the GPE is not applicable in this case.
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We look into dark solitons in a quasi-1D dipolar Bose gas and in a quantum droplet. We derive the analytical solitonic solution of a Gross-Pitaevskii-like equation accounting for beyond mean-field ...effects. The results show there is a certain critical value of the dipolar interactions, for which the width of a motionless soliton diverges. Moreover, there is a peculiar solution of the motionless soliton with a nonzero density minimum. We also present the energy spectrum of these solitons with an additional excitation subbranch appearing. Finally, we perform a series of numerical experiments revealing the coexistence of a dark soliton inside a quantum droplet.
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Approximately 10% of human protein kinases are believed to be inactive and named pseudokinases because they lack residues required for catalysis. Here, we show that the highly conserved pseudokinase ...selenoprotein-O (SelO) transfers AMP from ATP to Ser, Thr, and Tyr residues on protein substrates (AMPylation), uncovering a previously unrecognized activity for a member of the protein kinase superfamily. The crystal structure of a SelO homolog reveals a protein kinase-like fold with ATP flipped in the active site, thus providing a structural basis for catalysis. SelO pseudokinases localize to the mitochondria and AMPylate proteins involved in redox homeostasis. Consequently, SelO activity is necessary for the proper cellular response to oxidative stress. Our results suggest that AMPylation may be a more widespread post-translational modification than previously appreciated and that pseudokinases should be analyzed for alternative transferase activities.
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•SelO adopts a protein kinase fold with ATP flipped in the active site•SelO transfers AMP to Ser, Thr, and Tyr residues on protein substrates (AMPylation)•SelO AMPylates proteins involved in redox homeostasis•SelO protects cells from oxidative stress and regulates protein glutathionylation
The structure of SelO, a conserved pseudokinase, reveals ATP flipped in the substrate binding pocket, leading to the discovery that SelO is actually an AMPylating enzyme.
Every economic operator must implement investments to function and develop. The particularities of agriculture are such that governments often choose to intervene with a policy for agricultural ...investment support. For farms in Central and Eastern European countries, which are affected by capital scarcity and structural problems, it has been particularly essential to undertake modernisation investment measures. The main objective of this paper is to assess agricultural investments while taking into consideration the importance of funds available under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). As the selected measures are investment-oriented, their implementation was (and continues to be) viewed as a source of a sustainable agricultural transformation. The study presented in this paper is unique in that it carries out related cross-country analysis and comparisons, and the research tasks are based on unpublished Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) microdata for 5839 selected Central and Eastern European farms in period 2004–2015 (which gives 70,068 cross-section observations), provided by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI). The use of microdata made it possible to employ accurate analytical methods, including Stochastic Frontier Analysis, which, in turn, allowed for analysis of the changes in the farms’ technical efficiency. The study uses two analytical dimensions to identify farm groups according to (i) the use of public funds to co-finance agricultural investment expenditure and (ii) the scale (comprehensiveness) of investments implemented. This study found that the initial production potential becomes a specific determinant of the right strategic decisions (in terms of scale) and of the capacity to implement comprehensive modernisation investments, including those co-financed with investment mechanisms offered under the CAP. The use of the pro-investment CAP mechanisms provided the beneficiaries with the ability to improve their efficiency at a relatively faster pace, while not encouraging them to make excessive investments (it did not result in overinvestment). Another finding is that farms that implemented comprehensive investments were the only ones that improved their technical efficiency over the period studied.
•The analysis of complexity confirms the validity of the CAP investment measures.•CAP measures do not encourage unreasonably scaled investments.•Investment support allows for renewal of assets and improvements in efficiency.•Complex investments (co-finance by CAP) improve the technical efficiency of farms.
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