1,157 research outputs found
Flow Control: How New Geo-Economic Ambitions Reshape Globalization
Stewarding companies through a fragile International system in transition is and will be challenging. The current International order is fragile because the global leadership vacuum is widening, diverging concepts of sovereignty are colliding, the fabric of political power is changing, and emerging status quo challengers are combining cooperation and competition to test the resolve of incumbent lead nations. The ambivalence of technological progress reinforces all of these aspects. Most importantly, corporate decision-makers and investors need to understand that Adam Smith's idea of an 'invisible hand' driving a laissez-faire approach to politics is over. This transition phase is characterized – proverbially – by the 'iron fist with deep pockets,' i.e., authoritarian capitalism, and the vociferous 'Twitter finger,' i.e., executive populism. Both question well-established modes of interaction between politics and economics
Development and application of high-throughput amplified fragment length polymorphism technique in Calluna vulgaris (Ericaceae)
Calluna vulgaris is an important ornamental crop of the horticultural
industry in Europe. In order to improve breeding of this species,
especially of the most important trait of 'bud-flowering', the
implementation of molecular techniques that allow rapid, reproducible
and efficient screening of whole segregating populations e.g. for
molecular marker and mapping approaches is a requirement. We therefore
aimed to introduce the powerful tool of amplified fragment length
polymorphisms (AFLP\uae), a widely and successfully applied method,
into our methodological assortment. As an essential prerequisite, the
isolated DNA should be of adequate quality which is a common obstacle
when dealing with woody species and their interfering secondary
components/metabolites. The results of screening different and modified
DNA isolation protocols are described. As the outcome of our
evaluations of reaction conditions during the AFLP\uae procedure, we
circumstantiate a functional protocol ranging from DNA extraction to
visualization of AFLP\uae banding patterns for the woody crop C.
vulgaris. This method is suitable for high throughput genetic
applications and may even be transferable to other species. In
addition, costs are reduced by reasonable reagents and multiplexing
assays
Wood allocation trade-offs between fiber wall, fiber lumen, and axial parenchyma drive drought resistance in neotropical trees
Functional relationships between wood density and measures of xylem hydraulic safety and efficiency are ambiguous, especially in wet tropical forests. In this meta-analysis, we move beyond wood density per se and identify relationships between xylem allocated to fibers, parenchyma, and vessels and measures of hydraulic safety and efficiency. We analyzed published data of xylem traits, hydraulic properties and measures of drought resistance from neotropical tree species retrieved from 346 sources. We found that xylem volume allocation to fiber walls increases embolism resistance, but at the expense of specific conductivity and sapwood capacitance. Xylem volume investment in fiber lumen increases capacitance, while investment in axial parenchyma is associated with higher specific conductivity. Dominant tree taxa from wet forests prioritize xylem allocation to axial parenchyma at the expense of fiber walls, resulting in a low embolism resistance for a given wood density and a high vulnerability to drought-induced mortality. We conclude that strong trade-offs between xylem allocation to fiber walls, fiber lumen, and axial parenchyma drive drought resistance in neotropical trees. Moreover, the benefits of xylem allocation to axial parenchyma in wet tropical trees might not outweigh the consequential low embolism resistance under more frequent and severe droughts in a changing climate.Peer reviewe
Cryogenic 9Be+ Penning trap for precision measurements with (anti-)protons
Cooling and detection schemes using laser cooling and methods of quantum logic can contribute to high precision CPT symmetry tests in the baryonic sector. This work introduces an experiment to sympathetically cool protons and antiprotons using the Coulomb interaction with a 9Be+ ion trapped in a nearby but separate potential well. We have designed and set up an apparatus to show such coupling between two identical ions for the first time in a Penning trap. In this paper, we present evidence for successful loading and Doppler cooling of clouds and single ions. Our coupling scheme has applications in a range of high-precision measurements in Penning traps and has the potential to substantially improve motional control in these experiments
Web-Scale Bayesian click-through rate prediction for sponsored search advertising in Microsoft's Bing search engine
We describe a new Bayesian click-through rate
(CTR) prediction algorithm used for Sponsored
Search in Microsoft's Bing search engine. The
algorithm is based on a probit regression model
that maps discrete or real-valued input features to
probabilities. It maintains Gaussian beliefs over
weights of the model and performs Gaussian
online updates derived from approximate
message passing. Scalability of the algorithm is
ensured through a principled weight pruning
procedure and an approximate parallel
implementation. We discuss the challenges
arising from evaluating and tuning the predictor
as part of the complex system of sponsored
search where the predictions made by the
algorithm decide about future training sample
composition. Finally, we show experimental
results from the production system and compare
to a calibrated Naïve Bayes algorithm
Revealing and Controlling Energy Barriers and Valleys at Grain Boundaries in Ultrathin Organic Films
Modulating the polarization of broadband terahertz pulses from a spintronic emitter at rates up to 10 kHz
Reliable modulation of terahertz electromagnetic waveforms is important for many applications. Here, we rapidly modulate the direction of the electric field of linearly polarized terahertz electromagnetic pulses with 1–30 THz bandwidth by applying time-dependent magnetic fields to a spintronic terahertz emitter. Polarity modulation of the terahertz field with more than 99% contrast at a rate of 10 kHz is achieved using a harmonic magnetic field. By adding a static magnetic field, we modulate the direction of the terahertz field between angles of, for instance, −53° and 53° at kilohertz rates. We believe our approach makes spintronic terahertz emitters a promising source for low-noise modulation spectroscopy and polarization-sensitive techniques such as ellipsometry at 1–30 THz
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