An a posteriori error analysis of a mixed finite element Galerkin approximation to second order linear parabolic problems

In this article, a posteriori error estimates are derived for a mixed finite element Galerkin approximation to second order linear parabolic initial and boundary value problems. Using mixed elliptic reconstruction method, a posteriori error estimates in $L^\infty(L^2)$ and $L^2(L^2)$-norms with optimal order of convergence for the solution as well as its flux are proved for the semidiscrete scheme. Finally, based on backward Euler method, a completely discrete scheme is analyzed and a posteriori bounds are derived, which improves earlier results on a posteriori estimates for mixed parabolic problems

A priori error estimates for the optimal control of laser surface hardening of steel

A priori error estimates for the optimal control of laser surface hardening of stee

Learning versus stealing : how Important are market-share -- reallocations to India's productivity growth?

Recent trade theory emphasizes the role of market-share reallocations across firms ("stealing") in driving productivity growth, while the older literature focused on average productivity improvements ("learning"). The authors use comprehensive, firm-level data from India's organized manufacturing sector to show that market-share reallocations did play an important role in aggregate productivity gains immediately following the start of India's trade reforms in 1991. However, aggregate productivity gains during the overall period from 1985 to 2004 were driven largely by improvements in average productivity, which can be attributed to India's trade liberalization and FDI reforms.Economic Theory&Research,Industrial Management,E-Business,Labor Policies,Debt Markets

Scientific support for an orbiter middeck experiment on solid surface combustion

The objective is to determine the mechanism of gas-phase flame spread over solid fuel surfaces in the absence of any buoyancy or externally imposed gas-phase flow. Such understanding can be used to improve the fire safety aspects of space travel by providing information that will allow judicious selections of spacecraft materials and environments to be made. The planned experiment consists of measuring the flame spread rate over thermally thin and thermally thick fuels in a closed container in the low-gravity environment of the Space Shuttle. Measurements consist of flame spread rate and shape obtained from two views of the process as recorded on movie film and surface and gas-phase temperatures obtained from fine-wire thermocouples. The temperature measurements along with appropriate modeling provide information about the gas-to-solid heat flux. Environmental parameters to be varied are the oxygen concentration and pressure

In With the Big, Out With the Small: Removing Small-Scale Reservations in India

An ongoing debate in employment policy is whether promoting small and medium enterprises creates jobs. We use the elimination of small-scale industry (SSI) promotion in India to address this question. For 60 years, SSI promotion in India focused on reserving certain products for manufacture by small and medium enterprises. We identify the consequences for employment growth, investment, output, productivity, and wages of dismantling India\u27s SSI reservations. We exploit variation in the timing of de-reservation across products and also measure the long-run impact of national SSI policy changes using variation in pretreatment exposure at the district level. Districts more exposed to de-reservation experienced higher employment and output growth. Entrants into the de-reserved product spaces and incumbents that were previously constrained by the size restrictions drove the increase in growth. The results suggest that dismantling India\u27s SSI policies encouraged overall employment growth

Learning Versus Stealing: How Important Are Market-Share Reallocations to India\u27s Productivity Growth?

Recent trade theory emphasizes the role of market-share reallocations across firms (“stealing”) in driving productivity growth, whereas previous literature focused on average productivity improvements (“learning”). We use comprehensive, firm-level data from India\u27s organized manufacturing sector to show that market-share reallocations were briefly relevant to explain aggregate productivity gains following the beginning of India\u27s trade reforms in 1991. However, aggregate productivity gains during the period from 1985 to 2004 were largely driven by improvements in average productivity. We show that India\u27s trade, FDI, and licensing reforms are not associated with productivity gains stemming from market share reallocations. Instead, we find that most of the productivity improvements in Indian manufacturing occurred through “learning” and that this learning was linked to the reforms. In the Indian case, the evidence rejects the notion that market share reallocations are the mechanism through which trade reform increases aggregate productivity. Although a plausible response would be that India\u27s labor laws do not easily permit market share reallocations, we show that restrictions on labor mobility cannot explain our results

Biotechnological advances in Vitex species, and future perspectives

AbstractVitex is a large genus consisting of 230 species of trees and shrubs with multiple (ornamental, ethnobotanic and pharmacological) uses. Despite this, micropropagation has only been used to effectively propagate and preserve germplasm a limited number (six) of Vitex species (V. agnus-castus, V. doniana, V. glabrata, V. negundo, V. rotundifolia, V. trifolia). This review on Vitex provides details of published micropropagation protocols and perspectives on their application to germplasm preservation and in vitro conservation. Such details serve as a practically useful user manual for Vitex researchers. The importance of micropropagation and its application to synthetic seed production, in vitro flowering, production of secondary metabolites, and the use of molecular markers to detect somaclonal variation in vitro, are also highlighted