Development of pigments for thermal control coatings Final report, 17 Jun. - 16 Dec. 1965

Powdered metal oxide pigments by nucleation for temperature control coating

Competition, restructuring and firm performance: evidence of an inverted-U relationship from a cross-country survey of firms in transition economies

This paper examines the importance of competition in the growth anddevelopment of firms. We draw on a survey of 3,300 firms in 25transition countries to shed light on the factors that influencerestructuring by firms and their subsequent performance. These datahave three main advantages over those used in previous work. First,they measure directly the degree of competition perceived by each firmin its principal market rather than attempting to infer this from marketdata as measured by statistical agencies. Second, the fact that transitioncountries have market structures inherited from the past avoids some ofthe endogeneity problems associated with measures of competition inmarket economies. Third, the breadth of cross-country variationprovides a method of dealing with the fact that firm-level measures ofthe external environment will not be independent of the firm?s ownperformance. We find evidence of a robust inverted-U effect ofcompetition on performance that is both statistically and economicallysignificant. This paper examines the importance of competition in the growth anddevelopment of firms. We draw on a survey of 3,300 firms in 25transition countries to shed light on the factors that influencerestructuring by firms and their subsequent performance. These datahave three main advantages over those used in previous work. First,they measure directly the degree of competition perceived by each firmin its principal market rather than attempting to infer this from marketdata as measured by statistical agencies. Second, the fact that transitioncountries have market structures inherited from the past avoids some ofthe endogeneity problems associated with measures of competition inmarket economies. Third, the breadth of cross-country variationprovides a method of dealing with the fact that firm-level measures ofthe external environment will not be independent of the firm?s ownperformance. We find evidence of a robust inverted-U effect ofcompetition on performance that is both statistically and economicallysignificant

Social Behaviors of Modern and Indigenous Peoples Impacting the Ecology of the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil

Human induced disruption of the environment is prevalent in every culture. In Brazil, the effects of massive deforestation have become apparent since the nineteen eighties. However, along with deforestation, and a coinciding loss in an economic resource for the country, is a significant loss of natural habitat and species extinction. The Amazon in Brazil contains a large proportion of the world’s species diversity that is threatened by the socio-economic activities of modern Brazilian culture. Historically and presently, indigenous groups have contributed to insignificant levels of ecological disruption and are themselves threatened by the activities of modern Brazilians. The effects of ecological disruption range from shifting climate patterns, degradation of soils, loss of floral and faunal species, displacement of indigenous cultures, and the loss of many unknown resources. The preservation of this unique environment is vital to the continued viability of the region

Band structure analysis of the conduction-band mass anisotropy in 6H and 4H SiC

The band structures of 6H and 4H SiC calculated by means of the FP-LMTO method are used to determine the effective mass tensors for their conduction-band minima. The results are shown to be consistent with recent optically detected cyclotron resonance measurements and predict an unusual band filling dependence for 6H-SiC.Comment: 5 pages including 4 postscript figures incorporated with epsfig figs. available as part 2: sicfig.uu self-extracting file to appear in Phys. Rev. B: Aug. 15 (Rapid Communications

The potential usefulness of taurine on diabetes mellitus and its complications

Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is a free amino acid found ubiquitously in millimolar concentrations in all mammalian tissues. Taurine exerts a variety of biological actions, including antioxidation, modulation of ion movement, osmoregulation, modulation of neurotransmitters, and conjugation of bile acids, which may maintain physiological homeostasis. Recently, data is accumulating that show the effectiveness of taurine against diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance and its complications, including retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, atherosclerosis and cardiomyopathy, independent of hypoglycemic effect in several animal models. The useful effects appear due to the multiple actions of taurine on cellular functions. This review summarizes the beneficial effects of taurine supplementation on diabetes mellitus and the molecular mechanisms underlying its effectiveness

Impact hazard protection efficiency by a small kinetic impactor

In this paper the ability of a small kinetic impactor spacecraft to mitigate an Earth-threatening asteroid is assessed by means of a novel measure of efficiency. This measure estimates the probability of a space system to deflect a single randomly-generated Earth-impacting object to a safe distance from the Earth. This represents a measure of efficiency that is not biased by the orbital parameters of a test-case object. A vast number of virtual Earth-impacting scenarios are investigated by homogenously distributing in orbital space a grid of 17,518 Earth impacting trajectories. The relative frequency of each trajectory is estimated by means Opik’s theory and Bottke’s near Earth objects model. A design of the entire mitigation mission is performed and the largest deflected asteroid computed for each impacting trajectory. The minimum detectable asteroid can also be estimated by an asteroid survey model. The results show that current technology would likely suffice against discovered airburst and local damage threats, whereas larger space systems would be necessary to reliably tackle impact hazard from larger threats. For example, it is shown that only 1,000 kg kinetic impactor would suffice to mitigate the impact threat of 27.1% of objects posing similar threat than that posed by Apophis

Sorghum aphid pest management (1985)

Revised 4/85/10M, New 4/92/5M