A Penny For Your Thoughts

This paper discusses how much thought can be purchased with a penny. By quantifying thought by the power necessary to produce thought and comparing this to the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity as typically charged by energy providers. It was found that, assuming it is possible to think as fast as you speak, a penny could buy a 3 hour, 7 minute and 30 second monologue.

The Viability of Screams as a Power Source

This paper investigates the feasibility of using screams to meet the energy requirements of Britain. The concept is inspired by the Disney and Pixar animated film Monsters, Inc. where their world is powered by the screams of children. This paper uses this concept and applies it to the whole population of Britain in order to assess the viability of screams as a power source. By assuming, everyone in Britain can scream at the highest possible level for a human (129 dB) and that the screams last for on average 2 seconds. It was found that to meet the energy requirements of Britain, all the residents of Britain would be required to scream 2.8 x 108 times a day and have the energy produced stored.

How Much Energy Can Superman Release During a Super Flare?

This paper investigates how much solar energy Superman can store and subsequently release in the form of his new power, a Super Flare. Modelling Superman’s cells as tiny solar panels it was calculated that 7.07 x 105 J of energy is stored every second by Superman. This figure was adjusted to represent an efficiency which reflected Superman’s abilities; a new value of 3.86 x 1010 J every second was produced. Assuming that Superman can release the energy as fast as he stores it, then Superman releases 3.86 x 1010 J every second during a Super Flare which after an hour would have released more energy than an atomic bomb

El rol fundamental de los clúster en la promoción de la ventaja competitiva internacional - hacia un modelo explicativo del crecimiento regional

This work responds to calls to expand the study of inter-firm relationships beyond the narrow dyadic relationship focus and sole concentration on conceptualizing collaborations as firms’ strategic intent to implement mechanistic growth strategy. The objective is to map the salient features of existing clusters and how firms perceive the benefits of clusters by asking: How are the collaborative networks of private and public partnerships organized to enhance the competitiveness of all the stakeholders in a cluster? And how do these actors perceive the usefulness of clustering? The theoretical lens builds on viewing cluster initiatives as an interactive learning process and something that occurs in the interaction between actors as competitiveness is born through reshuffling resources both inside and outside of the firm, and takes into account value creation. The methodology draws on focus groups and surveys conducted in Swedish clusters. The findings show the perceived benefits of cluster initiatives to be networking, dialogue and experience exchange. The implications are that the relationships firms form in a cluster constitute critical avenues for acquiring resources and knowledge to enhance competitiveness, and bridges to other clusters in other countries. An explanatory model of clusters and regional competitiveness that emerged from our findings is presented.Este trabajo responde a las llamadas para expandir el estudio de las relaciones entre empresas más allá del foco estrecho centrado en relaciones diádicas y la concentración únicamente en conceptualizar las colaboraciones como meros intentos estratégicos de las empresas para implementar estrategias de crecimiento. El objetivo es mapear las características más sobresalientes de los clúster existentes y la forma en que las empresas perciben los beneficios de los clúster mediante las siguientes preguntas: ¿cómo son las redes colaborativas de socios privados y públicos que se organizan para mejorar la competitividad de los grupos de interés en el clúster? Y, ¿cómo perciben esos actores la utilidad del trabajo en red en el clúster (clustering)? El enfoque teórico se elabora sobre la visión de las iniciativas clúster como procesos de aprendizaje interactivo y como algo que ocurre en la interacción entre actores cuando la competitividad nace a través de la reorganización de recursos tanto dentro como fuera de la empresa, y tiene en cuenta la creación de valor. La metodología se basa en sesiones de grupo orientadas y encuestas pasadas a clúster suecos. Los hallazgos muestran que los principales beneficios percibidos de las iniciativas clúster son el trabajo en red, el diálogo y el intercambio de experiencia. Las implicaciones son que las relaciones que las empresas forman en un clúster constituyen medios fundamentales para adquirir recursos y conocimiento que mejora la competitividad, y que se extiende a otros clúster en otros países. Se presenta un modelo explicativo de la competitividad de los clúster y de las regiones

The Range of the Dragon Shout in Skyrim

The ‘call dragon’ shout from the popular Bethesda game Skyrim has the ability to summon a dragon from any point on the games 40km2 map. By modelling the attenuation of the human voice, it was discovered that the male and female human voices would only carry between ~0.11-0.15 km. For the shout to travel the entire map and arrive at an audible level, the shout must be at a volume of the order 1036 dB or 1048 dB for males and females respectively. Alternatively, for a very loud human shout (129 dB), the dragon would have to hear magnitudes as low as 10-46 dB

A cross-sectional multivariate analysis of the determinants of maintenance costs in Boston's public housing

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1988.Includes bibliographical references.by Osafran O. Okundaye.M.C.P

The effect of grower feed diet supplemented with Ganoderma lucidum against some enteric zoonotic parasites of pigeons ( Columba livia )

We report a preliminary study on the effect of grower feed diet supplemented with mashed Ganoderma lucidum against some enteric zoonotic parasites of wild rock pigeons ( Columba livia ) in Benin City, Nigeria. The pigeons were fed ad libitum with supplemented and non-supplemented grower feed diet in sawdust-floored squared wooden cages (45 cm x 30 cm x 20 cm) at room temperature for 21 days. They were sacrificed at days 14 and 21 for profiling of their zoonotic enteric parasites. High prevalence (77.7%) of Cestodes (tapeworms) and low prevalence (12.3%) of nematodes were recorded in the control pigeon fed non-supplemented grower feed compared to those on diet supplemented with Ganoderma. Cestodes (Helminths) such as Hymenolepsis carioca , Amoebataenia cuneata , Raillietina tetragona , Raillietina serrata , Inermicapsifer spp. , Hymenolepsis spp. , and a species of nematode ( Ascaridia columbae ) were identified in the gastrointestinal tract of the experimental pigeons. A few species (< 8 %) of Trematodes yet to be fully identified were also observed. The low population of helminth parasites and overall weight decrease of pigeon fed with diet supplemented with Ganderma lucidum recorded during the study suggest improved removal of digestive microbes, intestinal health, and gastrointestinal motility. These findings were aimed at contributing to the already existing knowledge on the use of feed additives, probiotics and supplementations in poultry farming

The effect of garlic and ginger phytogenics on the shelf life and microbial contents of homemade soursop ( Annona muricata L) fruit juice

The preservative effects of garlic and ginger was compared with that of sodium benzoate in assessing the shelf quality of locally prepared soursop juice. The soursop juice without treatment (T1) was used as the control while others in four replicates were separately treated with 50 mg/ml garlic (T2), 50 mg/ml ginger (T3), mixture garlic and ginger in equal proportion of 50 mg/ml each (T4) and 10 mg/ml (T5) sodium benzoate respectively. The microbial counts ranged from 3.0 7104-1.27 7106 cfu/ml juices with the untreated recording the highest concentration of contamination compared with the treated juices of which sodium benzoate had the least microbial contamination. The microorganisms consistent in all the treatments were Bacillus sp., Staphylococcus sp., Acetobacter sp., Klebsiella sp., Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida tropicalis while the distribution of Streptococcus sp., Klebsiella and Penicillium sp., and Proteus sp were sporadic. Marginal decreases in pH values were observed in the stored soursop juices across treatments. The results obtained showed that the treatment of freshly prepared soursop juices with sodium benzoate, and a mixture of garlic and ginger improved storage span and reduced health risks of infection and/or intoxication from their consumption