Communication channels in the host community market adopted by Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs

Orientation: There is a growing prevalence of entrepreneurial activity by immigrant entrepreneurs in different sectors of various economies across the world. Immigrant entrepreneurs seek to identify opportunities to grow and sustain their businesses in hostile business markets. Immigrant entrepreneurs use an array of channels of communication to gain insight of the opportunities in the market. Research purpose: The study sought to investigate the communication channels used by Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs to identify opportunities in the host community market. Motivation for the study: The study was undertaken given the dearth of research on the role of communication channels in enabling the identification of opportunities by immigrant entrepreneurs. Research design, approach and method: A qualitative research design was adopted in which purposive and snowball sampling were adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs operating small businesses in the South African context. Main findings: The results indicate that the immigrant entrepreneurs identified opportunities in the business environment through establishing channels of communication that manifested as networks with family members, customers, local employees and competitors. Building relationships through networks was key for the process of identifying opportunities. Practical/managerial implications: The study provides evidence that information about opportunities in the market is identified through dynamic channels of communication characterised by networks with different stakeholders. Contribution/value-add: Communication channels are pivotal in enabling the identification of opportunities in the business environment. Immigrant entrepreneurs actively create and sustain their relationships with various stakeholders in the business environment to be able to identify opportunities in the business environment

Upper critical field for underdoped high-T_c superconductors. Pseudogap and stripe--phase

We investigate the upper critical field in a stripe--phase and in the presence of a phenomenological pseudogap. Our results indicate that the formation of stripes affects the Landau orbits and results in an enhancement of $H_{c2}$. On the other hand, phenomenologically introduced pseudogap leads to a reduction of the upper critical field. This effect is of particular importance when the magnitude of the gap is of the order of the superconducting transition temperature. We have found that a suppression of the upper critical field takes place also for the gap that originates from the charge--density waves.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Еволюція рослинного світу в природному і культигенному середовищі

У ході засідань Міжнародної наукової конференції “Еволюція рослинного світу в природному і культигенному середовищі”, присвяченої 200-річчю від Дня народження Чарльза Дарвіна, обговорено актуальні питання еволюційної теорії, ботаніки, фізіології рослин, інтродукції, генетики й селекції, екології, збереження і примноження глобального та локального біорізноманіття, лісових культур і фітомеліорації та інших біологічних наук.В ходе заседаний Международной научной конференции “Эволюция растительного мира в естественной и культигенной среде”, посвященной 200-летию со дня рождения Чарльза Дарвина, обсуждены актуальные вопросы эволюционной теории, ботаники, физиологии растений, интродукции, генетики и селекции, экологии, сохранения и приумножения глобального и локального биоразнообразия, лесных культур и фитомелиорации и других биологических наук.During meetings of the International scientific conference “Evolution of the natural and cultivated plants” to devoted a 200-year from the day of birth of Charles Darwin topical problems of the evolutional theory are discussed, including botany, physiology of plants, introduction of plants, genetics and breeding of plants, ecology, preventing the loss of global and loca biodiversity, arboriculture, forest-growing and other biological sciences

Changing climate both increases and decreases European river floods

Climate change has led to concerns about increasing river floods resulting from the greater water-holding capacity of a warmer atmosphere1. These concerns are reinforced by evidence of increasing economic losses associated with flooding in many parts of the world, including Europe2. Any changes in river floods would have lasting implications for the design of flood protection measures and flood risk zoning. However, existing studies have been unable to identify a consistent continental-scale climatic-change signal in flood discharge observations in Europe3, because of the limited spatial coverage and number of hydrometric stations. Here we demonstrate clear regional patterns of both increases and decreases in observed river flood discharges in the past five decades in Europe, which are manifestations of a changing climate. Our results\u2014arising from the most complete database of European flooding so far\u2014suggest that: increasing autumn and winter rainfall has resulted in increasing floods in northwestern Europe; decreasing precipitation and increasing evaporation have led to decreasing floods in medium and large catchments in southern Europe; and decreasing snow cover and snowmelt, resulting from warmer temperatures, have led to decreasing floods in eastern Europe. Regional flood discharge trends in Europe range from an increase of about 11 per cent per decade to a decrease of 23 per cent. Notwithstanding the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the observational record, the flood changes identified here are broadly consistent with climate model projections for the next century4,5, suggesting that climate-driven changes are already happening and supporting calls for the consideration of climate change in flood risk management

The origins and development of Zuwīla, Libyan Sahara: an archaeological and historical overview of an ancient oasis town and caravan centre

Zuwīla in southwestern Libya (Fazzān) was one of the most important early Islamic centres in the Central Sahara, but the archaeological correlates of the written sources for it have been little explored. This paper brings together for the first time a detailed consideration of the relevant historical and archaeological data, together with new AMS radiocarbon dates from several key monuments. The origins of the settlement at Zuwīla were pre-Islamic, but the town gained greater prominence in the early centuries of Arab rule of the Maghrib, culminating with the establishment of an Ibāḍī state ruled by the dynasty of the Banū Khaṭṭāb, with Zuwīla its capital. The historical sources and the accounts of early European travellers are discussed and archaeological work at Zuwīla is described (including the new radiocarbon dates). A short gazetteer of archaeological monuments is provided as an appendix. Comparisons and contrasts are also drawn between Zuwīla and other oases of the ash-Sharqiyāt region of Fazzān. The final section of the paper presents a series of models based on the available evidence, tracing the evolution and decline of this remarkable site

Withdrawal of maintenance therapy for cytomegalovirus retinitis in AIDS patients exhibiting immunological response to HAART

BACKGROUND: Before the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), CMV retinitis was a common complication in patients with advanced HIV disease and the therapy was well established; it consisted of an induction phase to control the infection with ganciclovir, followed by a lifelong maintenance phase to avoid or delay relapses. METHODS: To determine the safety of CMV maintenance therapy withdrawal in patients with immune recovery after HAART, 35 patients with treated CMV retinitis, on maintenance therapy, with CD4+ cell count greater than 100 cells/mm³ for at least three months, but almost all patients presented these values for more than six months and viral load < 30000 copies/mL, were prospectively evaluated for the recurrence of CMV disease. Maintenance therapy was withdrawal at inclusion, and patients were monitored for at least 48 weeks by clinical and ophthalmologic evaluations, and by determination of CMV viremia markers (antigenemia-pp65), CD4+/CD8+ counts and plasma HIV RNA levels. Lymphoproliferative assays were performed on 26/35 patients. RESULTS: From 35 patients included, only one had confirmed reactivation of CMV retinitis, at day 120 of follow-up. No patient returned positive antigenemia tests. No correlation between lymphoproliferative assays and CD4+ counts was observed. CONCLUSION: CMV retinitis maintenance therapy discontinuation is safe for those patients with quantitative immune recovery after HAART

Trends in reported flooding in the UK: 1884–2013

A long term dataset of reported flooding based on reports from the UK Meteorological Office and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology is described. This is possibly a unique dataset as the authors are unaware of any other 100+ year records of flood events and their consequences on a national scale. Flood events are classified by severity based upon qualitative descriptions. There is an increase in the number of reported flood events over time associated with an increased exposure to flooding as floodplain areas were developed. The data was de-trended for exposure, using population and dwelling house data. The adjusted record shows no trend in reported flooding over time, but there is significant decade to decade variability. This study opens a new approach considering flood occurrence over a long timescale using reported information (and thus likely effects on society) rather than just considering trends in extreme hydrological conditions.<br/

Measurement of the View the tt production cross-section using eμ events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (σtt¯) with a data sample of 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electron–muon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously σtt¯ and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be: σtt¯ = 818 ± 8 (stat) ± 27 (syst) ± 19 (lumi) ± 12 (beam) pb, where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented

Search for strong gravity in multijet final states produced in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC

A search is conducted for new physics in multijet final states using 3.6 inverse femtobarns of data from proton-proton collisions at √s = 13TeV taken at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector. Events are selected containing at least three jets with scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT) greater than 1TeV. No excess is seen at large HT and limits are presented on new physics: models which produce final states containing at least three jets and having cross sections larger than 1.6 fb with HT > 5.8 TeV are excluded. Limits are also given in terms of new physics models of strong gravity that hypothesize additional space-time dimensions