The Emergence of Oligopoly

Originally published in 1969. In describing the emergence of oligopoly, Professor Eichner has written a history of the American sugar refining industry, one based in part on records of the United States Department of Justice. Sugar refining was one of the first major industries to be consolidated, and its expertise was in many ways typical of the development of other industries. Eichner's focus is on the changing pattern of industrial organization. This study is based on a unique four-stage model of the process by which the industrial structure of the American economy has evolved. The first part of the book traces the early history of the sugar refining industry and argues that the classical model of a competitive industry is inherently unstable once large fixed investments are required. The more closely sugar refining approximated this model, the more unstable the model became in practice. This instability led, in 1887, to the formation of the sugar trust. The author contends that the trust was formed not to exploit economies of scale but with the intent of achieving control over prices. In the second part of the book, Eichner describes the political and legal reaction that transformed monopoly into oligopoly. This sequence of events is best understood in terms of a learning curve in which the response of businessmen over time was related to the changing institutional environment in which they were forced to operate

La théorie post-keynésienne et la recherche empirique

The paper argues that post-Keynesian theory has reached a third stage in its development, that of empirically validating its arguments. The failure of the alternative neoclassical paradigm to meet any of the necessary empirical tests — the correspondence, comprehensiveness, parsimony and praxis tests in particular — is first pointed out. The methodological pitfalls which post-Keynesian theory must guard against if it is to avoid the same result are then indicated. From this line of argument emerges the imminent research agenda if post-Keynesian theory is eventually to place economics on a scientific basis by developing a body of theory which can be both empirically validated and conducive to further empirical research

La théorie post-keynésienne et la recherche empirique

The paper argues that post-Keynesian theory has reached a third stage in its development, that of empirically validating its arguments. The failure of the alternative neoclassical paradigm to meet any of the necessary empirical tests — the correspondence, comprehensiveness, parsimony and praxis tests in particular — is first pointed out. The methodological pitfalls which post-Keynesian theory must guard against if it is to avoid the same result are then indicated. From this line of argument emerges the imminent research agenda if post-Keynesian theory is eventually to place economics on a scientific basis by developing a body of theory which can be both empirically validated and conducive to further empirical research.

Using of spouted bed spray granulation process for fabricating of metal/ceramic-polymer composites

Naturally occurring structural materials are composites with very high filling degrees on hard constituent. In recent years structure and properties of biological materials have been studied in detail. But it has not been possible to reconstruct this structural design. In this contribution we present a process for the fabrication of very highly filled composite materials by using of the spouted bed spray granulation process. Spouted bed granulation offers many advantages for the design of composite materials. In this investigation fine particles (dP =10-50 µm) could be uniformly spouted, and optimal properties for further processing to bulk materials can be obtained by means of granulation. For this a hybrid spouted bed with horizontal gas inlets was designed, which has a small prismatic process chamber with adjustable inlets and a high conical-cylindrical relaxation zone. The thickness of the polymer layer is adjusted by a two-fluid nozzle. The adjustment of the thickness of polymer layer is very important to fabricate composites of adjustable filling degrees. After granulation the particles are assembled to a composite material by means of warm pressing. Additionally for achievement of very high packing densities bimodal particle size distributions are used. For this purpose, particles in nm-range are firstly suspended in polymer solution and the suspension is sprayed in the spouted bed on coarser particles. Granulated particles are assembled to composites and mechanical properties of these were analysed by 4-point bending-tests. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) via the collaborative research center SFB986. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

LUX -- A Laser-Plasma Driven Undulator Beamline

The LUX beamline is a novel type of laser-plasma accelerator. Building on the joint expertise of the University of Hamburg and DESY the beamline was carefully designed to combine state-of-the-art expertise in laser-plasma acceleration with the latest advances in accelerator technology and beam diagnostics. LUX introduces a paradigm change moving from single-shot demonstration experiments towards available, stable and controllable accelerator operation. Here, we discuss the general design concepts of LUX and present first critical milestones that have recently been achieved, including the generation of electron beams at the repetition rate of up to 5 Hz with energies above 600 MeV and the generation of spontaneous undulator radiation at a wavelength well below 9 nm.Comment: submitte

Design considerations for table-top, laser-based VUV and X-ray free electron lasers

A recent breakthrough in laser-plasma accelerators, based upon ultrashort high-intensity lasers, demonstrated the generation of quasi-monoenergetic GeV-electrons. With future Petawatt lasers ultra-high beam currents of ~100 kA in ~10 fs can be expected, allowing for drastic reduction in the undulator length of free-electron-lasers (FELs). We present a discussion of the key aspects of a table-top FEL design, including energy loss and chirps induced by space-charge and wakefields. These effects become important for an optimized table-top FEL operation. A first proof-of-principle VUV case is considered as well as a table-top X-ray-FEL which may open a brilliant light source also for new ways in clinical diagnostics.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Appl. Phys.

Test of the Conserved Vector Current Hypothesis by beta-ray Angular Distribution Measurement in the Mass-8 System

The beta-ray angular correlations for the spin alignments of 8Li and 8B have been observed in order to test the conserved vector current (CVC) hypothesis. The alignment correlation terms were combined with the known beta-alpha-angular correlation terms to determine all the matrix elements contributing to the correlation terms. The weak magnetism term, 7.5\pm0.2, deduced from the beta-ray correlation terms was consistent with the CVC prediction 7.3\pm0.2, deduced from the analog-gamma-decay measurement based on the CVC hypothesis. However, there was no consistent CVC prediction for the second-forbidden term associated with the weak vector current. The experimental value for the second-forbidden term was 1.0 \pm 0.3, while the CVC prediction was 0.1 \pm 0.4 or 2.1 \pm 0.5.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.