Microsofts Monopoly: Anti-Competitive Behavior, Predatory Tactics, And The Failure Of Governmental Will

Thirty years ago, Microsoft Corp. was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.  To understand how the company has gained competitive advantage we examine how the company used unfair, anti-competitive, and predatory approaches in their business.  We discuss how we have come to the belief that the government settlement in United States and State of New York, et al., v. Microsoft Corporation imposing restrictions on Microsoft’s behavior and monitoring its actions for compliance is not enough to keep it from abusing its monopolistic power and does too little to prevent it from dominating the software and operating system industry today

Counterfactual reasoning and knowledge of possibilities

Williamson has argued against scepticism concerning our metaphysically modal knowledge, by arguing that standard patterns of suppositional reasoning to counterfactual conclusions provide reliable sources of correct ascriptions of possibility and necessity. The paper argues that, while Williamson’s claims relating to necessity may well be right, he has not provided adequate reasons for thinking that the familiar modes of counterfactual reasoning to which he points generalise to provide a decent route to ascriptions of possibility. The paper also explores another path to ascriptions of possibility that may be extracted from Williamson’s ideas, before briefly considering the general status of counterfactual reasoning in relation to our knowledge of possibilities

Bedforms Produced on a Particle Bed by Vertical Oscillations of a Plate

We describe a new mechanism that produces bedforms and characterize the conditions under which it operates. The mechanism is associated with pressure gradients generated in a fluid saturated particle bed by a plate oscillating in the water above it. These vertical pressure gradients cause oscillatory bed failure. This facilitates particle displacement in its interior and transport at and near its surface that contribute to the formation of a heap under the plate. Flows over erodible beds generally cause shear stresses on the bed and these induce bed failure. Failure driven by pressure gradients is different from this. We report on bedforms in a bed of glass beads associated with such fluctuating pressure gradients. We measure the development of the profiles of heaps as a function of time and determine the tangential and normal motion of areas on the beds surface and estimate the depth of penetration of the tangential transport. The measurements compare favorably with a simple model that describes the onset of failure due to oscillations in pressure

Hadron Spectrum with Wilson fermions

We present results of a high statistics study of the quenched spectrum using Wilson fermions at $\beta=6.0$ on $32^3 \times 64$ lattices. We calculate the masses of mesons and baryons composed of both degenerate and non-degenerate quarks. Using non-degenerate quark combinations allows us to study baryon mass splittings in detail. We find significant deviations from the lowest order chiral expansion, deviations that are consistent with the expectations of quenched chiral perturbation theory. We find that there is a $\sim 20$ systematic error in the extracted value of $m_s$, depending on the meson mass ratio used to set its value. Using the largest estimate of $m_s$ we find that the extrapolated octet mass-splittings are in agreement with the experimental values, as is $M_\Delta - M_N$, while the decuplet splittings are 30% smaller than experiment. Combining our results with data from the GF11 collaboration we find considerable ambiguity in the extrapolation to the continuum limit. Our preferred values are $M_N / M_\rho = 1.38(7)$ and $M_\Delta / M_\rho = 1.73(10)$, suggesting that the quenched approximation is good to only $\sim 10-15$. We also analyze the $O(ma)$ discretization errors in heavy quark masses.Comment: 52 pages. Tex. Modified "axis" source for figures also included. Needs macro packages lanlmac and epsf. Uses hyperbasics if available. Significant number of typographical errors correcte

Trends in North American net primary productivity derived from satellite observations, 1982-1998

Net primary productivity (NPP) in North America was computed for the years 1982–1998 using the Carnegie‐Ames‐Stanford approach (CASA) carbon cycle model. CASA was driven by a new, corrected satellite record of the normalized difference vegetation index at 8‐km spatial resolution. Regional trends in the 17‐year NPP record varied substantially across the continent. Croplands and grasslands of the Central Plains and eastern Canadian forests experienced summer increases in NPP. Peak NPP trends in Alaska and western Canada occurred in late spring or early summer, suggesting an earlier onset of the growing season in these regions. Forests and woodlands of the southeastern United States showed NPP increases in spring and fall, also suggesting an increase in the length of the growing season. An analysis of climate variables showed that summer precipitation increased in the Central Plains, indicating that climate changes probably play some role in increasing NPP in this region, though intensive management of agricultural ecosystems has also increased productivity. Similarly, increased summer precipitation possibly increased NPP in eastern Canada, but another possible explanation is forest recovery after insect damage. NPP in the southeastern United States increased in the absence of climate variation. Much of this region consists of aggressively managed forests, with young stand ages and intensive silviculture resulting in increased NPP. The high latitudes of western Canada and Alaska experienced spring warming that could have increased NPP in late spring or early summer

Establishment of invasive Black Carp (\u3ci\u3eMylopharyngodon piceus\u3c/i\u3e) in the Mississippi River basin: identifying sources and year classes contributing to recruitment

Black Carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) was imported to the USA to control aquaculture pond snails. This species has escaped captivity and occurs in parts of the Mississippi River, several tributaries, and floodplain lakes, which is concerning due to potential competition with native fishes and predation on native mussels, many of which are imperiled. However, Black Carp captures have primarily been incidental by commercial fishers, and evidence of reproduction in the wild is limited. The objectives of this study were to assess relative abundance of aquaculture- origin and wild Black Carp using ploidy and otolith stable isotope analysis, identify spatial extent of natural reproduction using otolith microchemistry, assess age distributions of wild and aquaculturesource Black Carp to infer years in which natural reproduction occurred and timing of aquaculture escapement or introductions, and estimate size and age at maturation to assess whether recruitment to adulthood has occurred. Results revealed that Black Carp are established in parts of the Mississippi River basin based on findings that: (1) non-captive Black Carp primarily consist of fertile, naturally-reproduced fish, (2) reproduction has occurred in several rivers, (3) multiple year classes of wild fish are present, and (4) wild fish have recruited to adulthood. Multiple introductions or escapements of aquaculture-source fish into the wild, including both fertile and functionally sterile individuals, were also inferred. Individual growth appears to be rapid, although considerable variation was observed among fish. Additional study is suggested to refine understanding of where and when Black Carp reproduction is occurring in the Mississippi River basin

Satellite-derived increases in net primary productivity across North America, 1982-1998

We used a new 17‐year, high spatial resolution satellite record and a carbon cycle model to explore how changing net primary productivity (NPP) contributed to a proposed carbon (C) sink in North America. We found a small but significant increase in NPP, 0.03 Pg C yr^(−2) or 8% over 17 years, that could explain a substantial fraction of the C sink. The largest increases occurred in the central and southeastern United States, eastern Canada, and northwestern North America, and were consistent with NPP trends derived from forest inventories and crop yields. Interannual NPP variability was small, implying that the large interannual variability in the C sink found in previous studies were driven by changes in heterotrophic respiration

HbA1c variability in adults with type 1 diabetes on continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) therapy compared to multiple daily injection (MDI) treatment

Objective To determine if continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) therapy is associated with lower glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) variability (long-term glycaemic variability; GV) relative to multiple daily injection (MDI) treatment in adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Design Retrospective audit. Setting and participants Clinic records from 506 adults with T1DM from two tertiary Australian hospitals. Outcome measures Long-term GV was assessed by HbA1c SD and coefficient of variation (CV) in adults on established MDI or CSII therapy, and in a subset changing from MDI to CSII. Results Adults (n=506, (164 CSII), 50% women, mean±SD age 38.0±15.3 years, 17.0±13.7 years diabetes, mean HbA1c 7.8%±1.2% (62±13 mmol/mol) on CSII, 8.0%±1.5% (64±16 mmol/mol) on MDI) were followed for 4.1±3.6 years. CSII use was associated with lower GV (HbA1c SD: CSII vs MDI 0.5%±0.41% (6±6 mmol/mol) vs 0.7%±0.7% (9±8 mmol/mol)) and CV: CSII vs MDI 6.7%±4.6% (10±10 mmol/mol) vs 9.3%±7.3% (14±13 mmol/mol), both p<0.001. Fifty-six adults (73% female, age 36±13 years, 16±13 years diabetes, HbA1c 7.8%±0.8% (62±9 mmol/mol)) transitioned from MDI to CSII. Mean HbA1c fell by 0.4%. GV from 1 year post-CSII commencement decreased significantly, HbA1c SD pre-CSII versus post-CSII 0.7%±0.5% (8±5 mmol/mol) vs 0.4%±0.4% (5±4 mmol/mol); p<0.001, and HbA1c CV 9.2%±5.5% (13±8 mmol/mol) vs 6.1%±3.9% (9±5 mmol/mol); p<0.001. Conclusions In clinical practice with T1DM adults relative to MDI, CSII therapy is associated with lower HbA1c GV

Genome landscapes and bacteriophage codon usage

Across all kingdoms of biological life, protein-coding genes exhibit unequal usage of synonmous codons. Although alternative theories abound, translational selection has been accepted as an important mechanism that shapes the patterns of codon usage in prokaryotes and simple eukaryotes. Here we analyze patterns of codon usage across 74 diverse bacteriophages that infect E. coli, P. aeruginosa and L. lactis as their primary host. We introduce the concept of a `genome landscape,' which helps reveal non-trivial, long-range patterns in codon usage across a genome. We develop a series of randomization tests that allow us to interrogate the significance of one aspect of codon usage, such a GC content, while controlling for another aspect, such as adaptation to host-preferred codons. We find that 33 phage genomes exhibit highly non-random patterns in their GC3-content, use of host-preferred codons, or both. We show that the head and tail proteins of these phages exhibit significant bias towards host-preferred codons, relative to the non-structural phage proteins. Our results support the hypothesis of translational selection on viral genes for host-preferred codons, over a broad range of bacteriophages.Comment: 9 Color Figures, 5 Tables, 53 Reference

Trends in North American net primary productivity derived from satellite observations, 1982-1998

Net primary productivity (NPP) in North America was computed for the years 1982–1998 using the Carnegie‐Ames‐Stanford approach (CASA) carbon cycle model. CASA was driven by a new, corrected satellite record of the normalized difference vegetation index at 8‐km spatial resolution. Regional trends in the 17‐year NPP record varied substantially across the continent. Croplands and grasslands of the Central Plains and eastern Canadian forests experienced summer increases in NPP. Peak NPP trends in Alaska and western Canada occurred in late spring or early summer, suggesting an earlier onset of the growing season in these regions. Forests and woodlands of the southeastern United States showed NPP increases in spring and fall, also suggesting an increase in the length of the growing season. An analysis of climate variables showed that summer precipitation increased in the Central Plains, indicating that climate changes probably play some role in increasing NPP in this region, though intensive management of agricultural ecosystems has also increased productivity. Similarly, increased summer precipitation possibly increased NPP in eastern Canada, but another possible explanation is forest recovery after insect damage. NPP in the southeastern United States increased in the absence of climate variation. Much of this region consists of aggressively managed forests, with young stand ages and intensive silviculture resulting in increased NPP. The high latitudes of western Canada and Alaska experienced spring warming that could have increased NPP in late spring or early summer