Sequence of Tenses in English

1. Sequence of tenses (SOT) is the phenomenon whereby the tense of the complement is made to match that of its main clause. When the higher verb is in the simple past tense, the tense of the lower verb shifts to maintain the temporal relationship between itself ..

Sunk costs of capital and predominance of investor-owned firms in market economies

This paper examines why investor-owned firms are predominant in market economies. It is assumed that firm owners and outside traders are asymmetrically informed of venture risks, and that are sunk costs associated with investment in physical and human capital. Then, we undertake an efficiency comparison between investor-owned and worker-owned firms. We find that it is efficient when the input supplier (the investor or worker) who incurs large sunk costs owns the firm. This is because such an input supplier can credibly signal to the other input supplier that he in fact has a safe project. An empirical study based on the Japanese manufacturing industry seems to support the theoretical result

Japanese agriculture cooperatives in food manufacturing industries

Food manufacturing by agriculture cooperatives is portrayed as an enterprise that is owned by the suppliers of raw agricultural products. Typically, in this type of enterprise, decision making is democratically made by the member farmers, and the surplus is divided among them according to the amount of raw agricultural products they supply to the firm. In this paper, we seek to find comparative efficiency and inefficiency of food manufacturing firms run by agriculture cooperatives

Developing Design Support System Based on Semantic of Design Model

AbstractA design support system is developed for engineering design based on the ontology which is declarative description conceptualized the world that agents (men and programs) focused on. The design process is understood as determining the design parameters and their relationships which consists the design model. The meta-model of design model is the ontology which represented as a network in the computer system using the XML. The design model is generated from the meta-model as class in Object oriented language . The system built with the above concept provides the following abilities, 1) declarative description that engineers intend to design, 2) effective entering data into Object oriented model, 3)semantic of design model which focused by numerical simulation and graphics programed with Java. Finally, the system's validity and effectiveness is ascertained by applying it to the basic design of an irrigation pipeline

Strong magnetic field enhancement of spin triplet pairing arising from coexisting 2kF2k_F spin and 2kF2k_F charge fluctuations

We study the effect of the magnetic field (Zeeman splitting) on the triplet pairing. We show generally that the enhancement of spin triplet pairing mediated by coexisting $2k_F$ spin and $2k_F$ charge fluctuations can be much larger than in the case of triplet pairing mediated by ferromagnetic spin fluctuations. We propose that this may be related to the recent experiment for (TMTSF)$_2$ClO$_4$, in which a possibility of singlet to triplet pairing transition has been suggested.Comment: 5 page

Electronic structure and spontaneous internal field around non-magnetic impurities in spin-triplet chiral p-wave superconductors

The electronic structure around an impurity in spin triplet p-wave superconductors is studied by the Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory on a tight-binding model, where we have chosen $\sin{p_x}{+}{\rm i}\sin{p_y}$-wave or $\sin{(p_x+p_y)}{+}{\rm i}\sin{({-}p_x{+}p_y)}$-wave states which are considered to be candidates for the pairing state in Sr$_{2}$RuO$_{4}$. We calculate the spontaneous current and the local density of states around the impurity and discuss the difference between the two types of pairing. We propose that it is possible to discriminate the two pairing states by studying the spatial dependence of the magnetic field around a pair of impurities.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Realization of Berezinskii's superconductivity in quasi-one-dimensional systems

We revisit the pairing symmetry competition in quasi-one-dimensional systems. We show that spin-triplet s-wave pairing, where the pair is formed by electrons with different times and has an odd-frequency symmetry, can be realized in systems with strong one-dimensionality when the strength of charge fluctuation dominates over spin fluctuation. The present study provides a novel microscopic mechanism for this exotic pairing originally proposed by Berezinskii in 1974.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Possible spin-triplet ff-wave pairing due to disconnected Fermi surfaces in Nax_xCoO2⋅y_2\cdot yH2_2O

We propose that spin-triplet pairing mechanism due to disconnected Fermi surfaces proposed in our previous study [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 63} 174507 (2001)] may be at work in a recently discovered superconductor Na$_x$CoO$_2$ $\cdot y$ H$_2$O. We introduce a single band effective model that takes into account the pocket-like Fermi surfaces along with the van Hove singularity near the K point found in the band calculation results. Applying fluctuation exchange method and solving the linearized {\'E}liashberg equation, the most dominant pairing is found to have spin-triplet $f$-wave symmetry, where the nodes of the gap function do not intersect the pocket Fermi surfaces. Presence of finite $T_c$ is suggested in sharp contrast with cases when the gap nodes intersect the Fermi surface.Comment: A revised version of the paper, which has been accepted for publication in Physical Reiview Letters. Some sentences and paragraphs added in the discussion part (page 4

Association of SIGNR1 with TLR4-MD-2 enhances signal transduction by recognition of LPS in gram-negative bacteria

SIGNR1, a member of a new family of mouse C-type lectins, is expressed at high levels in macrophages (Mφ) within the splenic marginal zone, lymph node medulla, and in some strains, in peritoneal cavity. We previously reported that SIGNR1 captures gram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium, as well as Candida albicans. We have now investigated the precise ligands and innate responses that involve SIGNR1. The interaction of SIGNR1 with FITC-dextran and E. coli was completely inhibited by LPS from E. coli and Salmonella minnesota. Using LPS from various types of rough mutants of Salmonella, we found that SIGNR1 primarily recognizes oligosaccharides in the non-reductive end of the LPS core region. In transfectants, expression of SIGNR1 enhanced the oligomerization of Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 molecules as well as the degradation of IκB-α after stimulation with E. coli under low-serum conditions. The enhanced TLR4 oligomerization was inhibited by pre-treatment of the cells with anti-SIGNR1 mAb or with mannan. A physical association between SIGNR1 and the TLR4-MD-2 complex was also observed by immunoprecipitation. Finally, we found that transfection of SIGNR1 into the macrophage-like RAW264.7 cells resulted in significant augmentation of cytokine production. These results suggest that SIGNR1 associates with TLR4 to capture gram-negative bacteria and facilitate signal transduction to activate innate Mφ responses