A Model of Russia's "Virtual Economy"

The Russian Economy has evolved into a hybrid form, a partially monetized quasi-market system that has been called the virtual economy. In the virtual economy, barter and non-monetary transactions play a key role in transferring value from the productive activities to the loss-making sectors of the economy. We show how this transfer takes place, and how it can be consistent with the incentives of economic agents. We analyze a simple partial-equilibrium model of the virtual economy, and show how it might prove an obstacle to industrial restructuring and hence marketizing transition.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39701/3/wp317.pd

Impediments to Timely Delivery of New Products at an Industrial Products Firm

To identify and discuss sources of delay in the new product development process at an industrial products firm, data were collected during 11 bi-weekly project review meetings at which 42 different projects were discussed. The highest priority projects were designs for a new venture into European markets. It was suggested that manager selection, vendor monitoring, attention to physical engineering design, and bureaucratic checkpoints contribute more to project delays than do most other internal problems such as resource bottlenecks and miscommunications. A challenging trade-off existed between a well-established sign-off procedure and a less-structured but potentially more timely product development policy. In the ordinary least squares results, the largest proportion of sum of squares was attributable to the manager variable

Gastric emptying is slow in chronic fatigue syndrome

BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal symptoms are common in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of these symptoms and explore their relationship with objective (radionuclide) studies of upper GI function. METHODS: Thirty-two (32) patients with CFS and 45 control subjects completed a questionnaire on upper GI symptoms, and the 32 patients underwent oesophageal clearance, and simultaneous liquid and solid gastric emptying studies using radionuclide techniques compared with historical controls. RESULTS: The questionnaires showed a significant difference in gastric (p > 0.01) symptoms and swallowing difficulty. Nocturnal diarrhoea was a significant symptom not previously reported. 5/32 CFS subjects showed slightly delayed oesophageal clearance, but overall there was no significant difference from the control subjects, nor correlation of oesophageal clearance with symptoms. 23/32 patients showed a delay in liquid gastric emptying, and 12/32 a delay in solid gastric emptying with the delay significantly correlated with the mean symptom score (for each p ≪ 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: GI symptoms in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are associated with objective changes of upper GI motility

Valuing Avoided Soil Erosion by Considering Private and Public Net Benefits

The population in New Zealand is expected to increase to over five million by the mid 2020’s from the current level of 4.3 million (Statistics New Zealand, 2009). An increasing demand for primary produce as a result may put pressure on marginal land to be farmed. Understanding the economic value of avoided erosion in New Zealand is therefore an important factor in policy making to optimise the soil related activities in the economy. Establishing a methodology for estimating the economic value of avoided soil erosion is the first step in assessing the problem. This study uses the future forest scenarios developed by Scion to identify potential afforestation areas and thereby compare the current erosion/sedimentation status under current land-use (non woody vegetation) with potential future afforestation. The study aims to quantify the incremental public and private net benefits from the change in scenario. The notion has come under different headings in the literature, such as on-site and off-site erosion effects or sediment and soil erosion effects, all of which recognize the importance of separation of effects to avoid double-counting. The separation into public and private benefits and costs in this case, while avoiding double-counting, will also help identify appropriate policy instruments to avoid soil erosion damage using the private and public net benefit framework (Pannell, 2008).Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

The Rebirth of Airships

Until the outbreak of the Second World War, uncertainty existed whether airships and airplanes would dominate intercontinental passenger transportation. The massive investments in fixed-wing aircraft during these hostilities made airplanes the decisive winner, and relegated airships to a negligible role in transportation. As the 21st Century progresses, airships are making a comeback fueled by the 21st Century progresses, airships are making a comeback fueled by the growing demand for air cargo, the unique environmental and operational characteristics of buoyant flight, and advances in engineering science and materials. This paper examines the market niche for airships that exists between air and marine transport and the inherent advantages and disadvantages of this mode of transportation. The economics of airships are considered in light of their past achievements and current designs. The paper concludes with the discussion of two potential applications. A long haul mission for airships between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland is considered for perishable freight, and a short haul mission for airships in northern Canada is considered for the transport of freight and passengers to remote communities

An improved ontological representation of dendritic cells as a paradigm for all cell types

The Cell Ontology (CL) is designed to provide a standardized representation of cell types for data annotation. Currently, the CL employs multiple is_a relations, defining cell types in terms of histological, functional, and lineage properties, and the majority of definitions are written with sufficient generality to hold across multiple species. This approach limits the CL’s utility for cross-species data integration. To address this problem, we developed a method for the ontological representation of cells and applied this method to develop a dendritic cell ontology (DC-CL). DC-CL subtypes are delineated on the basis of surface protein expression, systematically including both species-general and species-specific types and optimizing DC-CL for the analysis of flow cytometry data. This approach brings benefits in the form of increased accuracy, support for reasoning, and interoperability with other ontology resources. 104. Barry Smith, “Toward a Realistic Science of Environments”, Ecological Psychology, 2009, 21 (2), April-June, 121-130. Abstract: The perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson embraces a radically externalistic view of mind and action. We have, for Gibson, not a Cartesian mind or soul, with its interior theater of contents and the consequent problem of explaining how this mind or soul and its psychological environment can succeed in grasping physical objects external to itself. Rather, we have a perceiving, acting organism, whose perceptions and actions are always already tuned to the parts and moments, the things and surfaces, of its external environment. We describe how on this basis Gibson sought to develop a realist science of environments which will be ‘consistent with physics, mechanics, optics, acoustics, and chemistry’

High Sensitivity DNA Detection Using Gold Nanoparticle Functionalised Polyaniline Nanofibres

Polyaniline (PANI) nanofibres (PANI-NF) have been modified with chemically grown gold nanoparticles to give a nanocomposite material (PANI-NF–AuNP) and deposited on gold electrodes. Single stranded capture DNA was then bound to the gold nanoparticles and the underlying gold electrode and allowed to hybridise with a complementary target strand that is uniquely associated with the pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), that causes mastitis. Significantly, cyclic voltammetry demonstrates that deposition of the gold nanoparticles increases the area available for DNA immobilisation by a factor of approximately 4. EPR reveals that the addition of the Au nanoparticles efficiently decreases the interactions between adjacent PANI chains and/or motional broadening. Finally, a second horseradish peroxidase (HRP) labelled DNA strand hybridises with the target allowing the concentration of the target DNA to be detected by monitoring the reduction of a hydroquinone mediator in solution. The sensors have a wide dynamic range, excellent ability to discriminate DNA mismatches and a high sensitivity. Semi-log plots of the pathogen DNA concentration vs. faradaic current were linear from 150 × 10−12 to 1 × 10−6 mol L−1 and pM concentrations could be detected without the need for molecular, e.g., PCR or NASBA, amplification

A Secure Group Communication Architecture for Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This paper investigates the application of a secure group communication architecture to a swarm of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A multicast secure group communication architecture for the low earth orbit (LEO) satellite environment is evaluated to determine if it can be effectively adapted to a swarm of UAVs and provide secure, scalable, and efficient communications. The performance of the proposed security architecture is evaluated with two other commonly used architectures using a discrete event computer simulation developed using MATLAB. Performance is evaluated in terms of the scalability and efficiency of the group key distribution and management scheme when the swarm size, swarm mobility, multicast group join and departure rates are varied. The metrics include the total keys distributed over the simulation period, the average number of times an individual UAV must rekey, the average bandwidth used to rekey the swarm, and the average percentage of battery consumed by a UAV to rekey over the simulation period. The proposed security architecture can successfully be applied to a swarm of autonomous UAVs using current technology. The proposed architecture is more efficient and scalable than the other tested and commonly used architectures. Over all the tested configurations, the proposed architecture distributes 55.2–94.8% fewer keys, rekeys 59.0–94.9% less often per UAV, uses 55.2–87.9% less bandwidth to rekey, and reduces the battery consumption by 16.9–85.4%