Biosynthesis of the protoberberine alkaloid jatrorrhizine

Feeding experiments with distant single or doubly labelled precursors show that the methylene dioxy group of berberine is opened in the formation of jatrorrhizine

Do retailers benefit from the long tail phenomenon?

The Internet and related technologies have vastly expanded the variety of products that can be profitably promoted and sold by online retailers. As a result, while in most offline markets, a few best selling products (blockbusters) generate the bulk of demand, online demand for blockbusters is often accompanied by sales for a huge number of less-selling products (niches). In response to emerging long-tailed sales distribution patterns, Anderson (2004, 2006) coined the phrase Long Tail to describe the phenomenon that niche products can gain a significant share in total sales. Most important from a retailers' perspective is whether additionally offered niche products mainly substitute former existing ones or if consumers expand their demand. While the latter can generate additional profit, substitution is only beneficial if substitutes have higher margins than products that were purchased before. By using a unique data set of a monopolistic video-on-demand operator in Germany that covers all individual sales since its launch from December 2004 until August 2007, we disentangle demand for additional offered films into substitution and additional consumption. Our results reveal that demand of additionally offered films is driven by on average 86.10% additional consumption and only 13.90% substitution, suggesting huge profit potential for retailers by increasing their assortments. © 2010 IADIS

From non-symmetric particle systems to non-linear PDEs on fractals

We present new results and challenges in obtaining hydrodynamic limits for non-symmetric (weakly asymmetric) particle systems (exclusion processes on pre-fractal graphs) converging to a non-linear heat equation. We discuss a joint density-current law of large numbers and a corresponding large deviations principle.Comment: v2: 10 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the proceedings for the 2016 conference "Stochastic Partial Differential Equations & Related Fields" in honor of Michael R\"ockner's 60th birthday, Bielefel

The ascertainment of customary law : what is ascertainment of customary law and what is it for?

Traditional communities are no longer homogeneous. Before, basically everybody knew what the law of the community was. There is a growing understanding that the legal complexity experienced in urban settlements where various customary laws apply needs attention. There is also a growing acceptance that the verdict of the chief is not necessarily the last word: dissatisfied parties may take that verdict on appeal to a state court whose judges will not necessarily know what the customary law applied by the court a quo.The Namibian approach to ascertaining customary law has become known as the self-statement of customary law. Self-stating customary law refers to a process of ascertaining customary law by the owners of the law to be ascertained, namely the people and the traditional leaders as the custodians of customary law. The most important element in self-stating is that the end result will be a product created in the community that is required to follow and apply the law concerned.The fact that the author of this paper - based on his experience with customary law in Namibia - had the opportunity to work for the then Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development of the Government of Southern Sudan and the United Nations Development Programme in the development of a customary law strategy for Southern Sudan adds special value to the Namibian experience and its analysis. Las comunidades tradicionales ya no son homog&eacute;neas. Antes todo el mundo conoc&iacute;a cu&aacute;l era la ley de la comunidad. Sin embargo, cada vez se asume m&aacute;s que hay que prestar atenci&oacute;n a la complejidad legal existente en asentamientos urbanos en los que se aplican diferentes derechos consuetudinarios. Tambi&eacute;n hay una creciente aceptaci&oacute;n de que el veredicto del jefe no es necesariamente la &uacute;ltima palabra: las partes descontentas pueden recurrir el veredicto ante un tribunal estatal, cuyos jueces puede que no conozcan el derecho consuetudinario aplicado por el tribunal a quo.El enfoque de Namibia para determinar el derecho consuetudinario se conoce como la auto-afirmaci&oacute;n del derecho consuetudinario. Por auto-afirmaci&oacute;n se entiende el proceso de establecer el derecho consuetudinario por los propietarios del derecho que se va a determinar, concretamente el pueblo y los l&iacute;deres tradicionales, como conservadores del derecho consuetudinario. El elemento m&aacute;s importante en la auto-afirmaci&oacute;n es que el resultado final ser&aacute; un producto creado dentro de la comunidad que est&aacute; obligada a cumplir y aplicar la ley en cuesti&oacute;n.El hecho de que el autor de este art&iacute;culo &ndash;basado en su experiencia con el derecho consuetudinario en Namibia&ndash; tuviera la oportunidad de trabajar para el entonces Ministerio de Asuntos Jur&iacute;dicos y Desarrollo Constitucional del Gobierno de Sud&aacute;n del Sur y el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo, en el desarrollo de una estrategia de derecho consuetudinario para Sud&aacute;n del Sur, ofrece un valor a&ntilde;adido a la experiencia de Namibia y su an&aacute;lisis. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2100337</p

Massenkult und Todessymbolik in der nationalsozialistischen Architektur

Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020

Student-Athletes in my Classroom: Australian Teachers’ Perspectives of the Problems Faced by Student-Athletes Balancing School and Sport

This paper emerged from a larger project about Australian high performance school age athletes self-identified problems in balancing their academic and sporting lives. Teachers of student-athletes are ideally placed to observe stresses faced by these students, but little is published about teacher perspectives on this topic. A qualitative analysis of interview data from 10 teachers, across 10 Australian secondary schools, revealed critical information about the similarities and differences in their perspectives compared to those of student-athletes and parents. Teachers identified five main areas where student-athletes required dedicated support, and provided examples of solutions to address these. Their practical strategies complement the characteristics of the ‘athlete-friendly’ school and serve as examples of best practice support that other schools could adopt. On analysis, these strategies align with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Consequently, the focus of this paper relates to the teacher perspectives and how this impacts teacher practice

On-sky single-mode fiber coupling measurements at the Large Binocular Telescope

The demonstration of efficient single-mode fiber (SMF) coupling is a key requirement for the development of a compact, ultra-precise radial velocity (RV) spectrograph. iLocater is a next generation instrument for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) that uses adaptive optics (AO) to inject starlight into a SMF. In preparation for commissioning iLocater, a prototype SMF injection system was installed and tested at the LBT in the Y-band (0.970-1.065 $\mu$m). This system was designed to verify the capability of the LBT AO system as well as characterize on-sky SMF coupling efficiencies. SMF coupling was measured on stars with variable airmasses, apparent magnitudes, and seeing conditions for six half-nights using the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer. We present the overall optical and mechanical performance of the SMF injection system, including details of the installation and alignment procedure. A particular emphasis is placed on analyzing the instrument's performance as a function of telescope elevation to inform the final design of the fiber injection system for iLocater.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Absolute physical calibration in the infrared

We determine an absolute calibration for the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer 24 μm band and recommend adjustments to the published calibrations for Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), and IRAS photometry to put them on the same scale. We show that consistent results are obtained by basing the calibration on either an average A0V star spectral energy distribution (SED), or by using the absolutely calibrated SED of the Sun in comparison with solar-type stellar photometry (the solar analog method). After the rejection of a small number of stars with anomalous SEDs (or bad measurements), upper limits of ~1.5% root mean square (rms) are placed on the intrinsic infrared (IR) SED variations in both A-dwarf and solar-type stars. These types of stars are therefore suitable as general-purpose standard stars in the IR. We provide absolutely calibrated SEDs for a standard zero magnitude A star and for the Sun to allow extending this work to any other IR photometric system. They allow the recommended calibration to be applied from 1 to 25 μm with an accuracy of ~2%, and with even higher accuracy at specific wavelengths such as 2.2, 10.6, and 24 μm, near which there are direct measurements. However, we confirm earlier indications that Vega does not behave as a typical A0V star between the visible and the IR, making it problematic as the defining star for photometric systems. The integration of measurements of the Sun with those of solar-type stars also provides an accurate estimate of the solar SED from 1 through 30 μm, which we show agrees with theoretical models