Search results for "flexibility"
showing 10 items of 466 documents
PERSONAL QUALITIES OF LEARNING FACILITATORS IN ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION : OPINION OF ADULT EDUCATORS IN LATVIA AND LITHUANIA
2015
The paper highlights the key findings from a comparative study conducted in 2011- 2012 using the project “Qualified to Teach” − QF2TEACH first wave questionnaire (www.qf2teach.eu). The questionnaire was structured in nine domains: personal qualities; interpersonal behaviour and communication with learners; cooperation with the external environment; planning and management; access and progression of learners; subject-related, specialist domain; monitoring and assessment of learning processes; didacticalmethodological domain; personal development and reflection. In present paper the main results of transnational survey in Latvia and Lithuania are analysed in order to evaluate the importance o…
Protein Flexibility and Preorganization in the Design of Enzymes. The Kemp Elimination Catalyzed by HG3.17
2015
A recently designed enzyme, HG3.17, obtained by directed evolution, has shown a catalytic activity close to natural enzymes. Hybrid QM/MM molecular dynamics simulations for the Kemp elimination in this new enzyme have provided a deep insight into the origin of its catalytic efficiency. In this case, we have first demonstrated the presence of different conformations with significantly different reactivity. The larger reactivity is related with a better electrostatic preorganization of the environment that creates a more favorable electrostatic potential for the reaction to proceed. In HG3.17, efforts to improve the catalytic properties must be focused in possible mutations increasing the pre…
Studying the role of protein dynamics in an SN2 enzyme reaction using free-energy surfaces and solvent coordinates
2013
Conformational changes are known to be able to drive an enzyme through its catalytic cycle, allowing, for example, substrate binding or product release. However, the influence of protein motions on the chemical step is a controversial issue. One proposal is that the simple equilibrium fluctuations incorporated into transition-state theory are insufficient to account for the catalytic effect of enzymes and that protein motions should be treated dynamically. Here, we propose the use of free-energy surfaces, obtained as a function of both a chemical coordinate and an environmental coordinate, as an efficient way to elucidate the role of protein structure and motions during the reaction. We sho…
Contribution of Protein Flexibility to the Foaming Properties of Casein
1990
The effect of biopolymer flexibility on the foaming properties of casein was investigated. Flexibility was altered by: (1) chemical modification (covalent binding of a monosaccharide on the lysyl residues) or (2) pH change. Electron Spin Resonance was used to measure the reorientational frequency of casein residues labeled with nitroxide radicals. High levels of glycosylation induced increased protein flexibility and improved the foaming capacity. Good agreement was observed between higher values of flexibility and improved surface properties near the isoelectric point.
Influence of polymer flexibility on nanoparticle dynamics in semidilute solutions
2018
The hierarchical structure and dynamics of polymer solutions control the transport of nanoparticles (NPs) through them. Here, we perform multi-particle collision dynamics simulations of solutions of semiflexible polymer chains with tunable persistence length lp to investigate the effect of chain stiffness on NP transport. The NPs exhibit two distinct dynamical regimes - subdiffusion on short time scales and diffusion on long time scales. The long-time NP diffusivities are compared with predictions from the Stokes-Einstein relation (SER), mode-coupling theory (MCT), and a recent polymer coupling theory (PCT). Increasing deviations from the SER as the polymer chains become more rigid (i.e. as…
Behavioral Restriction Determines Left Attentional Bias: Preliminary Evidences From COVID-19 Lockdown
2021
International audience; During the COVID-19 lockdown, individuals were forced to remain at home, hence severely limiting the interaction within environmental stimuli, reducing the cognitive load placed on spatial competences. The effects of the behavioral restriction on cognition have been little examined. The present study is aimed at analyzing the effects of lockdown on executive function prominently involved in adapting behavior to new environmental demands. We analyze non-verbal fluency abilities, as indirectly providing a measure of cognitive flexibility to react to spatial changes. Sixteen students (mean age 20.75; SD 1.34), evaluated before the start of the lockdown (T1) in a battery…
Effect of inter-individual variability and intraguild interferences on the foraging strategies of seed-eating carabid species
2017
Making a choice requires, implicitly, an investment of time in one behaviour at the expense of an investment in another. Being choosy would increase the risk of losing many food item opportunities to competitors, and is directly in conflict with other essential tasks such as predator avoidance. Individuals are thus expected to adjust their level of choosiness in response to the competition and predation context. The available behavioural ecological theory and the empirical ecology of carabids would suggest that competition and predation interference induces changes in the foraging behaviour of carabid individuals. Carabids typically operate within communities in which competition and predat…
Public procurement: current situation and points of improvement
2015
[ES] La construcción pública ha sido, es y será uno de los pilares fundamentales del sector construcción español, si bien la actual situación de crisis económica y la reducción de la inversión pública en nuevas infraestructuras ha generado un descenso de actividad hasta niveles similares a los años noventa. El retorno a índices de actividad más elevados no solo se conseguirá con la recuperación de la economía del país, sino que será necesario realizar ciertas mejoras en los procesos de licitación con objeto de conseguir una mayor funcionalidad y flexibilidad en la contratación pública de obras.
Current Accounts and Coordination of Wage Bargaining
2018
This study provides novel evidence on the impact of labor market institutions on current account dynamics. Our results suggest that a high degree of coordination of wage bargaining has a positive effect on the current account balance over the long run. This result is not driven entirely by wage moderation induced by centralized wage setting. We also provide robust evidence that a high degree of coordination of wage bargaining is associated with a slower current account adjustment toward its long-run equilibrium. This result seems theoretically plausible; the aggregate shocks in the exporting sector are largely driven by idiosyncratic shocks and the presence of idiosyncratic shocks increases…
ROMANIAN SMES VERSUS THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS-IMPEDIMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
2012
This paper studies the way small and medium sized enterprises have reacted towards the global financial crisis. It also attempts to study the impact this crisis had on both the activity of these enterprises and on the business mentality in Romania. The article studies the reasons which determined the SMEs’ vulnerability during the crisis; these belong to a wide range, spreading from the tightening of the financing options or of the activity, up to the management’s nature. The impact of the economic crisis is studied starting with the statistics in the specialty literature, which highlight the SMEs’ situation starting with 2008. Having as support these numbers, the paper analyzes the effects…