Global Diffusion of the Internet VIII: Maximum Resolution Dichotomy for Global Diffusion of the Internet

The Global Diffusion of the Internet (GDI) framework was used to study the progress in the adoption of the Internet in close to 30 countries since 1997. A new methodology in data mining is presented to extend the use of Kiviat diagrams to visualize the framework cast in a supply-demand dichotomy. A maximum resolution topology is derived as an additional tool for exploratory data analysis of such GDI dichotomies

A Global Comparative Study of Online Auction Markets

Online auctions have demonstrated how e-commerce can transform business, and not merely transplanting conventional processes to a new medium. The resulting emergence and growth of diverse markets pose the intriguing question of what ‘shape’ a given market is in at a particular moment of development. The approach of Topological Analysis, which is based on the Star Plot method in data visualization, provides such a model using only operational data, without any expert knowledge of the specific auction market, or financial details from the transactions. Using extensive analysis of data available on eBay.com, the foremost online auction platform to date, a global comparative study of four markets in eight countries is conducted. The results shed light on the evolution of electronic markets, as well as their regional and cultural variations

Fuel supplier selection for large scale UK bioenergy schemes

This article presents a potential method to assist developers of future bioenergy schemes when selecting from available suppliers of biomass materials. The method aims to allow tacit requirements made on biomass suppliers to be considered at the design stage of new developments. The method used is a combination of the Analytical Hierarchy Process and the Quality Function Deployment methods (AHP-QFD). The output of the method is a ranking and relative weighting of the available suppliers which could be used to improve optimization algorithms such as linear and goal programming. The paper is at a conceptual stage and no results have been obtained. The aim is to use the AHP-QFD method to bridge the gap between treatment of explicit and tacit requirements of bioenergy schemes; allowing decision makers to identify the most successful supply strategy available

A decision support system for supplier selection and order allocation in stochastic, multi-stakeholder and multi-criteria environments

Integrated supplier selection and order allocation is an important decision for both designing and operating supply chains. This decision is often influenced by the concerned stakeholders, suppliers, plant operators and customers in different tiers. As firms continue to seek competitive advantage through supply chain design and operations they aim to create optimized supply chains. This calls for on one hand consideration of multiple conflicting criteria and on the other hand consideration of uncertainties of demand and supply. Although there are studies on supplier selection using advanced mathematical models to cover a stochastic approach, multiple criteria decision making techniques and multiple stakeholder requirements separately, according to authors' knowledge there is no work that integrates these three aspects in a common framework. This paper proposes an integrated method for dealing with such problems using a combined Analytic Hierarchy Process-Quality Function Deployment (AHP-QFD) and chance constrained optimization algorithm approach that selects appropriate suppliers and allocates orders optimally between them. The effectiveness of the proposed decision support system has been demonstrated through application and validation in the bioenergy industry

Stochastic coarsening model for Pb islands on a Si(111) surface

The coarsening behavior of individual Pb islands on Si(111) surface has been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy. Traditionally island decay follows a smooth power-law dependence on the time until disappearance. In Pb/Si(111), some unstable islands are inactive for a long time but once their decay is triggered they suffer a “sudden death.” Four-layer islands are found to decay rapidly, increasing the area covered by seven-layer islands. All islands, decaying or otherwise, are accompanied by island size fluctuation which involve a large number of perimeter atoms moving collectively as a “quantized” unit. A stochastic model is developed to elucidate the mechanism behind this coarsening behavior of Pb islands. The distinct evolution of the islands with different heights is correctly predicted, and the size fluctuations of islands and the sudden death behavior observed in island coarsening are also recovered. The key ingredients are incorporation of accurate non-Gaussian statistics of the size fluctuations and also accounting for size changes in large quantized bursts

Capecitabine as Salvage Treatment for Lymphoepithelioma-Like Carcinoma of Lung

AbstractLymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) of lung has previously demonstrated good clinical response to 5-fluorouracil containing chemotherapy regimen, similar to the observation in undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Capecitabine, which is converted into active 5-fluorouracil within tumor cells, has been found effective in colorectal, breast, and recently nasopharyngeal carcinomas. We report our experience in five patients with advanced or metastatic LELC of lung who were treated with single agent capecitabine as salvage chemotherapy. The finding of disease control in three of five patients, especially with exceptionally durable stable disease (14.8 months) in one patient, suggests the potential clinical activity of capecitabine in LELC of lung. Future studies on capecitabine-containing chemotherapy regimens in LELC of lung are warranted

Asymmetric Josephson Effect in Inversion Symmetry Breaking Topological Materials

Topological materials which possess topologically protected surface states have attracted much attention in recent years. In this work, we study the critical current of superconductor/inversion symmetry breaking topological material/superconductor junctions. We found surprisingly that, in topological materials with broken inversion symmetry, the magnitude of the critical Josephson currents $|I^{+}_c(B)|$ at fixed magnetic field $B$ is not the same for critical currents $|I^{-}_c(B)|$ flowing in the opposite direction. Moreover, the critical currents violate the $| I_{c}^{\pm}(B)| = |I_{c}^{\pm}(-B)|$ relation and give rise to asymmetric Fraunhofer patterns. We call this phenomenon asymmetric Josephson effect (AJE). AJE can be use to detect inversion symmetry breaking in topological materials such as in quantum spin Hall systems and Weyl semimetals.Comment: 4+ pages, 4 figures. Comments are welcom

The Radio Quiescence of Active Galaxies with High Accretion Rates

We present 6 cm Very Large Array observations of the Greene & Ho (2004) sample of 19 low-mass active galaxies with high accretion rates. This is one of the only studies of a uniform sample of narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies with such high sensitivity and resolution. Although we detect only one source, the entire sample is very radio-quiet down to strong limits. GH10 was found to have a radio power of 8.5 x 10^21 W/Hz, and a ratio R = f(6 cm)/f(4400 A) of 2.8. The 3 sigma upper limits for the remaining nondetections correspond to radio powers from 3 x 10^20 to 8 x 10^21 W/Hz and 0.47 < R <9.9. Stacking all nondetections yields an even stronger upper limit of R < 0.27. An assessment of existing observations in the literature confirms our finding that NLS1s are consistently radio-quiet, with a radio-loud fraction of 0%-6%, which is significantly lower than the 10%-20% observed in the general quasar population. By analogy with stellar-mass black holes, we argue that AGNs undergo a state transition at L_bol/L_Edd~0.01. Below this value a radiatively inefficient accretion flow effectively drives an outflow, which disappears when the flow turns into an optically thick, geometrically thin disk, or a radiation pressure-dominated slim disk at still higher L_bol/L_Edd.Comment: To appear in ApJ; 8 pages, 3 figures; uses emulateapj5.st

Bis(μ-dimesitylborinato-κ2 O:O)bis­[(2-methyl­pyridine-κN)lithium]

The title compound, [Li2(C18H22BO)2(C6H7N)2], is a lithium dimesitylboroxide dimer in which the lithium cation is also coordinated by one mol­ecule of 2-methyl­pyridine. At the core of the structure is an Li2O2 four-membered ring. The structure is centrosymmetric with an inversion centre midway between two Li atoms. Inter­molecular C—H⋯π inter­actions and π–π inter­actions between the 2-methyl­pyridine rings exist [centroid–centroid distance = 3.6312 (16) Å]

Poincar\'e gauge theory with even and odd parity dynamic connection modes: isotropic Bianchi cosmological models

The Poincar\'e gauge theory of gravity has a metric compatible connection with independent dynamics that is reflected in the torsion and curvature. The theory allows two good propagating spin-0 modes. Dynamical investigations using a simple expanding cosmological model found that the oscillation of the 0$^+$ mode could account for an accelerating expansion similar to that presently observed. The model has been extended to include a $0^{-}$ mode and more recently cross parity couplings. We investigate the dynamics of this model in a situation which is simple, non-trivial, and yet may give physically interesting results that might be observable. We consider homogeneous cosmologies, more specifically, isotropic Bianchi class A models. We find an effective Lagrangian for our dynamical system, a system of first order equations, and present some typical dynamical evolution.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figures, submitted to IARD 2010 Conference Proceedings in {\em Journal of Physics: Conference Series}, eds. L. Horwitz and M. Land (2011