Japan's silver market: creating a new industry under uncertainty

It has often been asked whether today´s Japan will be able to move into new and promising industries, or whether it is locked into an innovation system with an inherent inability to give birth to new industries. One argument reasons that the thick institutional complementarities among labour, innovation, and finance among its enterprises and the public sector favour industrial development in sectors of intermediate uncertainty, while it is difficult to move into areas of major uncertainty. In this paper, we present the case of the silver industry or, somewhat more prosaically, the 60+ or even 50+ industry, for which most would agree that Japan has indeed become a lead market and lead producer on the global market. For an institutional economist, the case of the silver industry is particularly interesting, because Japan´s success is based on the cooperation of existing actors, the enterprise and public sector in particular, which helped overcome the information uncertainties and asymmetries involved in the new market by relying on several established mechanisms developed well before. In that sense, Japan´s silver industry presents a case of of what we propose to call successful institutional path activation with the effect of an innovative market creation, instead of the problematic lockin effects that are usually associated with the term path dependence

Protein kinase D enzymes are dispensable for proliferation, survival and antigen receptor-regulated NFκB activity in vertebrate B-cells

To investigate the importance of protein kinase D (PKD) enzymes we generated a PKD-null DT40 B-lymphocyte cell line. Previously we have shown that PKDs have an essential role in regulating class II histone deacetylases in DT40 B-cells [Matthews, S.A., Liu, P., Spitaler, M., Olson, E.N., McKinsey, T.A., Cantrell, D.A. and Scharenberg, A.M. (2006) Essential role for protein kinase D family kinases in the regulation of class II histone deacetylases in B lymphocytes. Mol. Cell Biol. 26, 1569–1577]. We now show that PKDs are also required to regulate HSP27 phosphorylation in DT40 B-cells. However, in contrast to previous observations in other cell types, PKD enzymes do not regulate basic cellular processes such as proliferation or survival responses, nor NFκB transcriptional activity downstream of the B cell antigen receptor. Thus, PKDs have a selective role in DT40 B-cell biology

Leveraging the Grid to Provide a Global Platform for Ubiquitous Computing Research

The requirement for distributed systems support for Ubicomp has led to the development of numerous platforms, each addressing a subset of the overall requirements of ubiquitous systems. In contrast, many other scientific disciplines have embraced the vision of a global distributed computing platform, i.e. the Grid. We believe that the Grid has the potential to evolve into an ideal platform for building ubiquitous computing applications. In this paper we explore in detail the areas of synergy between Grid computing and ubiquitous computing and highlight a series of research challenges in this space

Allometry of Workers of the Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta

The relationship between worker body size and the shape of their body parts was explored in the polymorphic ant, Solenopsis invicta. The data consisted of 20 measurements of body parts as well as sums of some of these measurements. Size-free shape variables were created by taking the ratios of relevant measures. After log-transformation, these ratios were regressed against the logarithm of total body length, or against the log of the size of the parent part. Slopes of zero indicated that shape did not change with size, and non-zero slopes signaled a size-related change of shape. Across the range of worker sizes, the head length retained a constant proportion to body length, but relative headwidth increased such that head shape changed from a barrel-profile to a somewhat heart-shaped profile. Antennae became relatively smaller, with the club contributing more to this decline than the other parts. The alinotum became relatively shorter and higher (more humped), and the gaster increased in both relative width and length, and therefore in volume. All three pairs of legs were isometric to body length. The component parts of the legs, with one exception, were isometric to their own total leg length. The body of S. invicta Abbreviation: / HL: head length BL: body length HW1: width across the eyes HW2: width above the eyes HW3: width below the eye

Achieving a wide field near infrared camera for the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope

The ongoing development of large infrared array detectors has enabled wide field, deep surveys to be undertaken. There are, however, a number of challenges in building an infrared instrument which has both excellent optical quality and high sensitivity over a wide field. We discuss these problems in the context of building a wide field imaging camera for the 3.5m telescope at Calar Alto with the new 2K*2K HgCdTe HAWAII-2 focal plane array. Our final design is a prime focus camera with a 15' field-of-view, called Omega 2000. To achieve excellent optical quality over the whole field, we have had to dispense with the reimaging optics and cold Lyot stop. We show that creative baffling schemes, including the use of undersized baffles, can compensate for the lost K band sensitivity. A moving baffle will be employed in Omega 2000 to allow full transmission in the non-thermal J and H bands.Comment: To appear in the SPIE proceedings of ``Optical and IR Telescope Instrumentation and Detectors'', Munich, March 200

Sleep-dependent memory consolidation in children with self-limited focal epilepsies

Objective Children with self-limited focal epilepsies of childhood (SLFE) are known to show impaired memory functions, particularly in the verbal domain. Interictal epileptiform discharges (IED) in these epilepsies are more pronounced in nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Nonrapid eye movement sleep is crucial for consolidation of newly-encoded memories. Therefore, we hypothesize that sleep-dependent memory consolidation is altered in relation to IED in children with SLFE. Methods We conducted a prospective case–control study. We applied a verbal (word pair) and a visuospatial (two-dimensional [2D] object location) learning task, both previously shown to benefit from sleep in terms of memory consolidation. Learning took place in the evening, and retrieval was tested in the morning after a night of sleep. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded across night. After sleep-stage scoring, the spike–wave index (SWI) was assessed at the beginning and the end of sleep. Fourteen patients with SLFE (age: 5.5 to 11.6 years) were compared with 15 healthy controls (age: 6.8 to 9.1 years) examined in a previous study. Results In contrast to healthy controls (mean: +12.9% recalled word pairs, p = .003, standard deviation (SD) = 12.4%), patients did not show overnight performance gains in the verbal memory task (mean: +6.4% recalled word pairs, p > .05, SD = 17.3) Neither patients nor controls showed significant overnight changes in visuospatial task performance. Spike–wave index was negatively correlated with recall performance in the verbal but not in the visuospatial task. Significance We found evidence for impaired overnight improvement of performance in children with SLFE in a verbal learning task, with high SWI rates predicting low recall performance. We speculate that spike–waves hamper long-term memory consolidation by interfering with NREM sleep

Becoming an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program: Perspectives of Teachers, Students, and Administrators.

As an urban middle school begins to implement the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program, this study explores the process of experiencing a curricular change from the perspective of the teachers and students themselves. Through the use of a mixed methods approach, key administrators, teachers, and students were interviewed in the first year of implementation. During the second year, teachers were surveyed as a means of tracking the change over time that teachers may have been experiencing. Themes emerged in the areas of instructional practice, professional experiences, and student experiences. Most interestingly and not expected was a theme related to whether IB was a good fit for the students in this particular school. Participants\u27 ability to highlight the successes and challenges inherent in a change process is discussed in light of future planning

How Love Ought to Be: The Power of Sapphic Representation in Animated Children’s Cartoons

Though there has been a long history of LGBTQ+ representation across various forms of media, cartoons are uniquely suited to counter hegemonic teachings that privilege heteronormativity. Consuming media with LGBTQ+ characters not only has the potential to shape attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community and make them more positive, but cartoons have the unique power to teach children important lessons that they do not learn in school, including narratives about queerness. In the absence of discussions about LGBTQ+ identities in the classroom, children overwhelmingly end up priviling heterosexuality in their interactions. As such, cartoons then have the power to counter these teachings and portray queerness through their whimsical animation and themes about struggling against the masses. This thesis will analyze the sapphic representation in five animated children’s cartoons, The Legend of Korra, Steven Universe, Adventure Time, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and The Owl House, ultimately finding that this representation is crucial in the current anti-gay political climate to counter dominant cultural norms that favor heterosexuality

The Impact of Payments to Foreign Recipients in the Economic Policy of the State

From the point of view of the deepening globalization processes in the world economy, developing the sphere of foreign trade (including primarily international trade in services) is of key importance. It is worth noting that as part of international trade, the payment for services to foreign recipients determine the functioning of the sphere of foreign trade. The method of taxation of the analyzed payments has an wide impact on shaping the economic policy of the state.The aim of this article is to present the taxation of payments to foreign recipients as one of the tools in shaping the economic policy of the state based on the example of the presented contrast of the Polish economy and the highly developed economies of Hong Kong and Singapore. The methodology used in this paper is critical literature analysis. The obtained research results indicate the need for the fiscal authorities to pay more attention in practice to the methods and ways of the taxation of payments to foreign recipients, as the main factor in the development of the foreign trade sphere. The conclusions presented in this paper show a wide range of impact of the methods of taxation of payments to foreign recipients on the development of the economic policy of the state, with particular emphasis on the area of foreign trade. The author‘s contribution to the development of the discipline, is an indication of new and practical actions for state authorities in influencing the development of the sphere of foreign trade and economic policy of the state based on the example of the presented contrast of the Polish economy and the highly developed economies of Hong Kong and Singapore. The article aims at describing the theoretical inspirations and research traditions behind the evolution of industrial relations in Poland. The account of global theoretical debate since the emerging of the field in the first half of the 20th century is delivered, followed by the overview of academic debates and research concerning the field since the times of state socialism (1945–1989) until the present day in Poland. In the conclusion, it is stated that in theoretical terms the field of industrial relations has remained underdeveloped