Defining Markets That Involve Multi-Sided Platform Businesses: An Empirical Framework With an Application to Google's Purchase of DoubleClick

A multi-sided platform (MSP) serves as an intermediary for two or more groups of customers who are linked by indirect network effects. Recent research has found that MSPs are significant in many industries and that some standard economic results, such as the Lerner Index, do not apply to them, in material ways, without some significant modification to take linkages between the multiple sides into account. This article extends several key tools used for the analysis of mergers to situations in which one or more of the suppliers are MSPs. It shows that the application of traditional tools to mergers involving MSPs results in biases the direction of which depends on the particular tool being used and other conditions. It also extends these tools to the analysis of the merger of MSPs. The techniques are illustrated with an application to an acquisition by Google in the online advertising industry.

Numerical modelling of heat transfer in a tube furnace for steel wire annealing

In order to relieve stresses from cold drawing and to regain ductility, steel wires are annealed in furnaces under prolonged exposure to an appropriate temperature termed as ‘soaking’. This ensures the attainment of the required product quality. Literature suggests that the annealing processes are still determined by trial and error approach due to a lack of standards and also due to the proprietary nature of furnace designs. This paper investigates the heat transfer mechanism in a 12-metre long tube furnace filled with an inert gas and through which a cold-rolled steel wire travels at a specified speed. The length of the furnace is divided into three regions i.e. heating zone, soaking zone and cooling zone of which the heating and the cooling zones are given special attention. The methodology involves the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics by coupling both solid (steel wire) and gaseous zones (Hydrogen or Nitrogen). Radiation has been incorporated via a suitable model and convection taken care of by considering laminar flow of gases. The results suggest that the time needed in the heating zone is influenced by the choices of the surrounding atmosphere, speeds of gas and of the wire. These factors have an impact on the wire drawing speed and eventually on the overall productivity. It is also implied that the proposed numerical method may be used to shorten the ‘soaking’ time and hence to reduce energy consumption. The work demonstrates the usefulness of CFD in understanding and optimisation of the transfer process as well as highlights the challenges associated with numerical results

Stress relaxation and mechanical properties of RL-1973 and PD-200-16 silicone resin sponge materials

Stress relaxation tests were conducted by loading specimens in double-lap shear to a preselected strain level and monitoring the decay of stress with time. The stress relaxation response characteristics were measured over a temperature range of 100 to 300 K and four strain levels. It is concluded that only a slight amount of stress relaxation was observed, and the stiffness increased approximately two orders of magnitude over the range of temperatures

Effect of dyeing industry effluent on nucleic acids and stress compounds in Brinjal

Chinnalapatti town is a well known as dyeing industrial place. These industries produce several tones of effluents containing toxic dyes and chemicals, which are discharged into river and land resources without proper treatment. These water sources are used for irrigation in the agricultural sector, facing great problems of crop loss and low yield. The present investigation was carried out to study the adverse impact of dyeing industry effluent when it is irrigated to the crop plants. Changes in nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and stress compounds such as peroxidase, catalase, phenol and thiol content, proline and ascorbic acid of Brinjal and observed that leaves of the effluent treated plants showed drastic alteration in the all such nucleic acids and stress compounds. The deviation of all these biochemical constituents indicates the adverse effect of these pollutants on the normal physiology. Hence, measures can be taken to restrict the practice of irrigating untreated dyeing industry effluent on the most significant vegetable

The Musical, Technical, and Compositional Qualities of Latin American Music as Applied to the Marimba

After spending the last year and a half immersing myself in this project, I realize there are several lifetimes worth of research available in Latin American music. This project has challenged me to the limits of my ability as a student, a percussionist, and a musician, but it has also improved and motivated me. This music has become a part of me and I want to share what I have learned

Development and Validation of Probabilistic Fatigue Models Containing Out-life Suspensions

Author\u27s abstract: In the area of reliability engineering it is necessary to be confident that a component or system of components will not fail under use for safety and cost reasons. One major mechanism of failure to a mechanical component is fatigue. This is the repetitious motion of loading and unloading of the material, typically below the ultimate tensile strength of the material, which ultimately leads to a catastrophic failure. To ensure this does not happen, engineers design components based on tests to determine the life of these components. These tests are typically conducted on a bench type tester in which a sample it subjected to tension and compression, or supported in a rotational machine in which a load is applied to one end to simulate constant bending. The results from these tests tell how long it is predicted that the part will last. This data however is not always complete. It sometimes happens that not every specimen tested actually makes it to failure; the un-failed specimens are known as suspensions. This can occur for numerous reasons. Methods currently exist for handling suspensions; however these methods require tedious hand calculations and interpolations from multiple graphs which are limited in availability. Presented here are five methods utilizing the Monte Carlo technique in a computer simulation based on Weibull-Johnson confidence numbers that take into account suspensions. This simulation allows for data from an existing experiment to be used as inputs and either validate the findings or bring attention for more testing. The model allows for two different data sets containing suspensions to be analyzed and determine with statistical confidence whether or not there is a difference between the two populations

Agricultural program planning to reflect potentials of small farms with applications to Mysore State, India

India, under its Fourth Five Year Plan, is placing greater emphasis on helping small farmers to increase their productivity and incomes. Small Farmer Development Agencies (SFDA) have been established in selected districts of Mysore and other states to coordinate the activities of relevant government agencies. The concern of this disser-tation was with the program results that might potentially be achieved if the resource constraints, production capabilities, and motivations of the small farmers themselves are taken adequately into account. Possible reasons why small farmers fail to respond to assistance programs were diagnosed. A general approach was suggested for selecting representative farmers, analyzing their potential responses to such help as more credit and irrigation, and assessing the aggregate implications in terms of program benefits and resource needs. This approach,was then illustrated to the extent possible with available farm data from a distributory in the Tungabhadra Irrigation Project in Mysore State. Bearing in mind the likely limitations in time and analytical capacity of district level agencies, a three-stage approach for using information about farmer situations and potential to help determine program content was suggested: Stage 1; The application of budgeting or linear programming to representative farms to ascertain their potential output response and input needs associated with alternative assistance proposals, taking into consideration the individual resource, constraints, technical capacities, and interests that they reflect. Stage II; Aggregation of these results to estimate the areawide benefits to small farmers and costs to the Agency stemming from each program alternative. Stage III; Use of benefit-cost or linear programming analysis to obtain an optimal SFDA program mix, considering the net benefits estimated in Stage II, the resource constraints of the Agency, and its objectives. The Tungabhadra illustration drew on survey data for 40 small farms and related production input-output information that had been synthesized from several sources. In this particular application, irrigated land area and operating capital were found to be the resources that most severely constrained farmers from achieving higher incomes. The linear programming analysis also brought out the fact that it is important to have detailed information about farmers\u27 production conr-straints, such as seasonal distribution of available family and hired labor, if farmer response potentials are to be realistically estimated. When SFDA assistance in the form of production credit and/or more irri-gated land was assumed, the additional credit generally came out as contributing more to incomes than additional irrigated land, especially on the larger representative farms. Labor was not a constraint except under very liberal assumptions about additional capital and irrigated land area. The overall implication for this Tungabhadra situation at least was that if SFDA wants to maximize its net contribution to small farmer incomes, it would not necessarily provide the same mix of assistance to every farmer, nor would it rationally expect all farmers to respond with identical changes in crops or practices. This study also explored, using the Tungabhadra data to illustrate where possible, some modifications in the basic procedure that might be considered by agencies like SFDA. These included: (1) use of principal component and factor analysis to divide farms into homogeneous groups for linear programming and aggregation purposes; (2) estimation of out-put changes and input needs, given the reality that farmers do not all take advantage of new opportunities at the same pace; and (3) simple approaches that SFDA workers might consider in the near future to improve the collection and analysis of farm level information for program plan-ning purposes