973 research outputs found
Some Free - Some Fee: The Emerging Business Model for e-Content Web Sites
The rapid emergence of E-commerce with its competitive characteristics has transformed the business landscape. In its short lifespan of little more than a decade, the Internet marketplace has already seen a dramatic cycle of high peaks and low valleys. E-content sites, whose primary product is information, have had the most difficulty sustaining profitability. The central proposition is that a firm’s business model is an important locus of innovation and a crucial source of revenue creation for its stakeholders. Consequently, the question has become how can an Internet business and e-content Web site, in particular, support a sustainable business model. There is a definite trend occurring away from the totally free content site to the hybrid model of charging for some e-content fittingly termed the ‘some free - some fee’ model. The ‘some free - some fee’ model is one approach that will enable online e-content businesses to create revenue while still offering free content to which many Web users have become accustomed. Understanding the underlying principles of, and the movement towards, the ‘some free - some fee’ model will assist e-content organizations in the transformation of their business model to ensure their survivability in the volatile Internet marketplace
Temperature in nonequilibrium systems with conserved energy
We study a class of nonequilibrium lattice models which describe local
redistributions of a globally conserved energy. A particular subclass can be
solved analytically, allowing to define a temperature T_{th} along the same
lines as in the equilibrium microcanonical ensemble. The
fluctuation-dissipation relation is explicitely found to be linear, but its
slope differs from the inverse temperature T_{th}^{-1}. A numerical
renormalization group procedure suggests that, at a coarse-grained level, all
models behave similarly, leading to a two-parameter description of their
macroscopic properties.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, final versio
A spectroscopic cell for fast pressure jumps across the glass transition line
We present a new experimental protocol for the spectroscopic study of the
dynamics of glasses in the aging regime induced by sudden pressure jumps
(crunches) across the glass transition line. The sample, initially in the
liquid state, is suddenly brought in the glassy state, and therefore out of
equilibrium, in a four-window optical crunch cell which is able to perform
pressure jumps of 3 kbar in a time interval of ~10 ms. The main advantages of
this setup with respect to previous pressure-jump systems is that the pressure
jump is induced through a pressure transmitting fluid mechanically coupled to
the sample stage through a deformable membrane, thus avoiding any flow of the
sample itself in the pressure network and allowing to deal with highly viscous
materials. The dynamics of the sample during the aging regime is investigated
by Brillouin Light Scattering (BLS). For this purpose the crunch cell is used
in conjunction with a high resolution double monochromator equipped with a CCD
detector. This system is able to record a full spectrum of a typical glass
forming material in a single 1 s shot. As an example we present the study of
the evolution toward equilibrium of the infinite frequency longitudinal elastic
modulus (M_infinity) of a low molecular weight polymer (Poly(bisphenol
A-co-epichlorohydrin), glycidyl end capped). The observed time evolution of
M_infinity, well represented by a single stretched exponential, is interpreted
within the framework of the Tool-Narayanaswamy theory.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure
Investigating the KNDy hypothesis in humans by co-administration of kisspeptin, neurokinin B and naltrexone in men
Context: A subpopulation of hypothalamic neurons co-localise three neuropeptides namely kisspeptin, neurokinin B (NKB) and dynorphin collectively termed KNDy neurons. Animal studies suggest they interact to affect pulsatile GnRH release (KNDy hypothesis); kisspeptin stimulates, NKB modulates and dynorphin (an opioid) inhibits. Objective: To investigate the KNDy hypothesis in humans, we assessed for the first time the effects of co-administration of kisspeptin-54, NKB and an opioid receptor antagonist, naltrexone on LH pulsatility (surrogate marker for GnRH pulsatility) and gonadotropin release. Design, setting and participants: Ethically approved prospective, single-blinded placebo-controlled study. Healthy male volunteers (n=5/group) attended our research facility for 8 study visits. Intervention and main outcome measure: After 1h baseline blood sampling, participants received a different intervention at each visit: oral 50mg naltrexone (NAL), 8h intravenous infusions of vehicle, 2.56nmol/kg/h NKB (NKB), 0.1nmol/kg/h kissspeptin-54 (KP) alone and in combination. Frequent blood sampling to measure plasma gonadotropins and sex steroids was conducted and LH pulsatility was determined using blinded deconvolution analysis. Results: All kisspeptin and naltrexone containing groups potently increased LH and LH pulsatility (p<0.001 vs vehicle). NKB alone did not affect gonadotropins. NKB+KP had significantly lower increases in gonadotropins compared with kisspeptin alone (p<0.01). NAL+KP was the only group to significantly increase LH pulse amplitude (p<0.001 vs vehicle). Conclusions: Our results suggest significant interactions between the KNDy neuropeptides on LH pulsatility and gonadotropin release in humans. This has important implications for improving our understanding of GnRH pulse generation in humans
On the Complexity Landscape of Connected f-Factor Problems
Given an n-vertex graph G and a function f:V(G) -> {0, ..., n-1}, an f-factor is a subgraph H of G such that deg_H(v)=f(v) for every vertex v in V(G); we say that H is a connected f-factor if, in addition, the subgraph H is connected. A classical result of Tutte (1954) is the polynomial time algorithm to check whether a given graph has a specified f-factor. However, checking for the presence of a connected f-factor is easily seen to generalize Hamiltonian Cycle and hence is NP-complete. In fact, the Connected f-Factor problem remains NP-complete even when f(v) is at least n^epsilon for each vertex v and epsilon<1; on the other side of the spectrum, the problem was known to be polynomial-time solvable when f(v) is at least n/3 for every vertex v.
In this paper, we extend this line of work and obtain new complexity results based on restricting the function f. In particular, we show that when f(v) is required to be at least n/(log n)^c, the problem can be solved in quasi-polynomial time in general and in randomized polynomial time if c 1, the problem is NP-intermediate
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