Empirical evidence on vertical foreclosure

Recent papers have shown conditions under which vertical, mergers can result in anticompetitive foreclosure of unintegrated rivals. These models imply that a necessary but not sufficient condition for anticompetitive foreclosure is that unintegrated rivals are less profitable after a vertical merger. We test this hypothesis by examining the stock prices of unintegrated rivals at the time of a vertical merger announcement and at the time of a government antitrust complaint. We find no evidence to support the foreclosure hypothesis.Consolidation and merger of corporations

Develop a fishery stock identification laboratory and identify coastal and estuarine stocks that are dependent on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries

Final report for a cooperative agreement between the Northeast Fisheries Center and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to determine short- and long-term factors affecting mortality and recruitment of key commercial and recreational species, including fishing mortality and both natural and man-induced environmental impacts on mortality and recruitment, project 3.0. Includes M.S. thesis by Carol Furman- Mitochondrial DNA variation in striped bass, Morone saxatilis, from the Rappahannock River, Virginia

A genetic and morphologic comparison of Macoma balthica from the eastern and western North Atlantic

Macoma balthica is a Tellinid bivalve that is common to both marine and estuarine soft-bottom habitats of the northern hemisphere. to determine if populations on the eastern and western North Atlantic are conspecific, the labial palp morphology, shell shape and genetic composition of these populations were examined. Previously described differences in the labial palp morphology do not occur among the population investigated. Differences in the shell shape and genetic composition, determined by enzyme electrophoresis, were observed between populations from the eastern and western North Atlantic. Allopatric populations of Macoma balthica from the eastern and western North Atlantic can be considered as separate and sibling species

Implicit finite element study of non-steady effects in cold roll forming

The ability of ABAQUS Standard to obtain a non-steady implicit solution to the problem of cold roll forming a channel section is investigated. A solution can be found with careful selection of parameters, but solutions are unacceptably slow for commercial use. The implicit solutions show buckling on the first pass that does not develop into an edge wave, in contrast to a published explicit solution. Faster solutions to steady rolling can be obtained using ALE models that permit convection of stress in the direction of rolling

Nucleation and growth control in protein crystallization

The five topics summarized in this final report are as follows: (1) a technique for the expedient, semi-automated determination of protein solubilities as a function of temperature and application of this technique to proteins other than lysozyme; (2) a small solution cell with adjustable temperature gradients for the growth of proteins at a predetermined location through temperature programming; (3) a microscopy system with image storage and processing capability for high resolution optical studies of temperature controlled protein growth and etching kinetics; (4) growth experiments with lysozyme in thermosyphon flow ; and (5) a mathematical model for the evolution of evaporation/diffusion induced concentration gradients in the hanging drop protein crystallization technique

Longwall shearer cutting force estimation

Longwall mining is an underground coal mining method that is widely used. A shearer traverses the coal panel to cut coal that falls to a conveyor. Operation of the longwall can benefit from knowledge of the cutting forces at the coal/shearer interface, particularly in detecting pick failures and to determine when the shearer may be cutting outside of the coal seam. It is not possible to reliably measure the cutting forces directly. This paper develops a method to estimate the cutting forces from indirect measurements that are practical to make. The structure of the estimator is an extended Kalman filter with augmented states whose associated dynamics encode the character of the cutting forces. The methodology is demonstrated using a simulation of a longwall shearer and the results suggest this is a viable approach for estimating the cutting forces. The contributions of the paper are a formulation of the problem that includes: the development of a dynamic model of the longwall shearer that is suitable for forcing input estimation, the identification of practicable measurements that could be made for implementation and, by numerical simulation, verification of the efficacy of the approach. Inter alia, the paper illustrates the importance of considering the internal model principle of control theory when designing an augmented-state Kalman filter for input estimation

Closed Circuit Television Systems on University Campuses: Unexamined Implications for the Expectation of Privacy and Academic Freedom

Since 9/11 and particularly since the massacre at Virginia Tech University in 2007, many universities in the United States have begun installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems on their campuses. What sorts of claims are being made about the use of these systems and what justifications are there for installing them? How might the pervasive use of monitoring technology affect traditional values associated with university life such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, privacy, and the freedom to explore? What policies are in place to ensure that whatever benefits associated with these systems justify both tangible and intangible costs?Our analysis is partially derived from a study of university policies in the United States concerning the installation and operation of CCTV systems with the aim of gaining insight into these questions. In addition, we used a coding instrument for analyzing the corpus of policies in order to understand how the policies addressed such issues as: rationale or justification for CCTV usage, relevant personnel roles, public awareness, accountability measures, information security and data handling, routine operations of usage, and any relevant limiting measures. One aspect of our study is to interpret the corpus of policies through the lens of Nissenbaum’s contextual integrity framework which is concerned with examining the effects of new technological practices (such as the installation of CCTV systems) on one’s expectation of privacy