5,726 research outputs found
WTO accession, the changing competitiveness of foreign-financed firms and regional development in Guangdong of southern China
This paper investigates the changing competitiveness of foreign-financed manufacturing firms and its implications for regional development in Guangdong province of southern China in the run-up to World Trade Organization (WTO) accession. It is argued that transnational corporations (TNCs) and some competitive, large-scale, locally-funded firms in Guangdong will triumph after WTO accession. The crowding-out process of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Guangdong will be accelerated in the near future, as they are competing directly with TNCs, and as their competitive advantages are diminishing, due to bureaucratic red tape and the rigorous enforcement of new government policies. Due to close business linkages with local privately-funded firms, the competitiveness and vitality of foreign-financed enterprises will have profound long term effects on the economic development of Guangdong, before and after WTO accession
Signature of a silver phase percolation threshold in microscopically phase separated ternary Ge0.15Se0.85-xAgx (0 <= x <= 0.20) glasses
Temperature modulated Alternating Differential Scanning Calorimetric (ADSC)
studies show that Se rich Ge0.15Se0.85-xAgx (0 <= x <= 0.20) glasses are
microscopically phase separated, containing Ag2Se phases embedded in a
Ge0.15Se0.85 backbone. With increasing silver concentration, Ag2Se phase
percolates in the Ge-Se matrix, with a well-defined percolation threshold at x
= 0.10. A signature of this percolation transition is shown up in the thermal
behavior, as the appearance of two exothermic crystallization peaks. Density,
molar volume and micro-hardness measurements, undertaken in the present study,
also strongly support this view of percolation transition. The super-ionic
conduction observed earlier in these glasses at higher silver proportions, is
likely to be connected with the silver phase percolation.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure
The Grenadian Crisis and the Caribbean Left
SUMMARY Prior to October 1983 ‘popular forces’ had established a hitherto unmatched degree of hegemony throughout the Caribbean region. The self?destruction of the Grenadian revolution opened the way to the restoration of colonial or neo colonial principles under US hegemony. The article examines the importance of democracy in the Caribbean political tradition, and the responsibility of the New Jewel Movement's leadership, and of the Caribbean intelligentsia who supported them, for ignoring this. RESUMEN La crisis de Grenada y la izquierda caribeña Con anterioridad a octubre de 1983, las ‘fuerzas populares’ establecieron un grado de hegemonía hasta entonces inédito en la región caribeña. La autodestrucción de la revolución de Grenada abrió el camino para la restauración de los principios coloniales o neocoloniales bajo la hegemonía estadounidense. El artículo examina la importancia de la democracia en la tradición política del Caribe y la responsabilidad que le cabe a la lideranza del Movimiento New Jewel, así como a la intelectualidad caribeña que la apoyó, por haberlo ignorado. SOMMAIRE La crise de la Grenade et la gauche Antillaise Avant Octobre 1983, les ‘forces populaires’ ont établi une hégémonie à un degré jusqu à present inégalé dans la région des Antilles. L'autodestruction de la révolution grenadine a ouvert la route à la restauration des principes coloniaux et néo?coloniaux sous l'hégémonie américaine. L'article examine l'importance de la Démocratie dans la tradition politique des Caraïbes et la responsabilité de la direction du mouvement du ‘Nouveau Bijou’ et de l'Intelligentsia des Caraïbes qui la supporte et veut ignorer cette première donnée
Drainage of a nanoconfined simple fluid: rate effects on squeeze-out dynamics
We investigate the effect of loading rate on drainage in molecularly thin
films of a simple fluid made of quasi-spherical molecules
(octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, OMCTS). We find that (i) rapidly confined OMCTS
retains its tendency to organize into layers parallel to the confining
surfaces, and (ii) flow resistance in such layered films can be described by
bulklike viscous forces if one accounts for the existence of one monolayer
immobilized on each surfaces. The latter result is fully consistent with the
recent work of Becker and Mugele, who reached a similar conclusion by analyzing
the dynamics of squeeze-out fronts in OMCTS [T. Becker and F. Mugele, Phys.
Rev. Lett. {\bf 91} 166104(2003)]. Furthermore, we show that the confinement
rate controls the nature of the thinning transitions: layer-by-layer expulsion
of molecules in metastable, slowly confined films proceeds by a
nucleation/growth mechanism, whereas deeply and rapidly quenched films are
unstable and undergo thinning transitions akin to spinodal decomposition
SAURON Observations of Disks in Spheroids
The panoramic integral-field spectrograph SAURON is currently being used to
map the stellar kinematics, gaseous kinematics, and stellar populations of a
large number of early-type galaxies and bulges. Here, we describe SAURON
observations of cold stellar disks embedded in spheroids (NGC3384, NGC4459,
NGC4526), we illustrate the kinematics and ionization state of large-scale
gaseous disks (NGC4278, NGC7742), and we show preliminary comparisons of SAURON
data with barred galaxy N-body simulations (NGC3623).Comment: 8 pages including 5 figures. To appear in Galaxies: The Third
Dimension, eds. M. Rosado, L. Binnette, & L. Arias (ASP: San Francisco
SAURON: An Innovative Look at Early-Type Galaxies
A summary of the SAURON project and its current status is presented. SAURON
is a panoramic integral-field spectrograph designed to study the stellar
kinematics, gaseous kinematics, and stellar populations of spheroids. Here, the
sample of galaxies and its properties are described. The instrument is detailed
and its capabilities illustrated through observational examples. These includes
results on the structure of central stellar disks, the kinematics and
ionization state of gaseous disks, and the stellar populations of galaxies with
decoupled cores.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. To appear in "The Dynamics, Structure & History
of Galaxies", eds. G. S. Da Costa & E. M. Sadler (San Francisco: ASP).
Version with full resolution images available at
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~dynamics/Instruments/Sauron/pub_list.htm
MITE-Hunter: a program for discovering miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements from genomic sequences
Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are a special type of Class 2 non-autonomous transposable element (TE) that are abundant in the non-coding regions of the genes of many plant and animal species. The accurate identification of MITEs has been a challenge for existing programs because they lack coding sequences and, as such, evolve very rapidly. Because of their importance to gene and genome evolution, we developed MITE-Hunter, a program pipeline that can identify MITEs as well as other small Class 2 non-autonomous TEs from genomic DNA data sets. The output of MITE-Hunter is composed of consensus TE sequences grouped into families that can be used as a library file for homology-based TE detection programs such as RepeatMasker. MITE-Hunter was evaluated by searching the rice genomic database and comparing the output with known rice TEs. It discovered most of the previously reported rice MITEs (97.6%), and found sixteen new elements. MITE-Hunter was also compared with two other MITE discovery programs, FINDMITE and MUST. Unlike MITE-Hunter, neither of these programs can search large genomic data sets including whole genome sequences. More importantly, MITE-Hunter is significantly more accurate than either FINDMITE or MUST as the vast majority of their outputs are false-positives
SAURON Observations of Disks in Early-Type Galaxies
We briefly describe the SAURON project, aimed at determining the intrinsic
shape and internal dynamics of spheroids. We focus here on the ability of
SAURON to identify gaseous and stellar disks and to measure their morphology
and kinematics. We illustrate some of our results with complete maps of
NGC3377, NGC3623, and NGC4365.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures (newpasp.sty). To appear in ASP Conf. Series
"Galaxy Disks and Disk Galaxies", eds. J.G. Funes S.J. & E.M. Corsini.
Version with full resolution images available at
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~bureau/pub_list.htm
A SAURON view of galaxies
We have measured the two-dimensional kinematics and line-strength
distributions of 72 representative nearby early-type galaxies, out to
approximately one effective radius, with our panoramic integral-field
spectrograph SAURON. The resulting maps reveal a rich variety in kinematical
structures and linestrength distributions, indicating that early-type galaxies
are more complex systems than often assumed. We are building detailed dynamical
models for these galaxies, to derive their intrinsic shape and dynamical
structure, and to determine the mass of the supermassive central black hole.
Here we focus on two examples, the compact elliptical M32 and the E3 galaxy
NGC4365. These objects represent two extreme cases: M32 has very regular
kinematics which can be represented accurately by an axisymmetric model in
which all stars rotate around the short axis, while NGC4365 is a triaxial
galaxy with a prominent kinematically decoupled core, with an inner core that
rotates about an axis that is nearly perpendicular to the rotation axis of the
main body of the galaxy. Our dynamical models for these objects demonstrate
that two-dimensional observations are essential for deriving the intrinsic
orbital structure and dark matter content of galaxies.Comment: 7 pages (3 figures, full resolution Fig. 1 available at
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~verolme/M32.ps). Contributed talk to the
Athens Workshop on Galaxies and Chaos, Theory and Observations; Proceedings
to appear in "Galaxies and Chaos", eds. G. Contopoulos and N. Vogli
OASIS High-Resolution Integral Field Spectroscopy of the SAURON Ellipticals and Lenticulars
We present a summary of high-spatial resolution follow-up observations of the
elliptical (E) and lenticular (S0) galaxies in the SAURON survey using the
OASIS integral field spectrograph. The OASIS observations explore the central
8x10" regions of these galaxies using a spatial sampling four times higher than
SAURON, often revealing previously undiscovered features. Around 75% (31/48) of
the SAURON E/S0s with central velocity dispersion >= 120 km/s were observed
with OASIS, covering well the original SAURON representative sample. We present
here an overview of this follow-up survey, and some preliminary results on
individual objects, including a previously unreported counter-rotating core in
NGC 4382; the decoupled stellar and gas velocity fields of NGC 2768; and the
strong age gradient towards the centre of NGC 3489.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astron. Nachr. as
refereed proceedings of Euro3D Science Workshop, IoA Cambridge, May 200
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