Consideration of permanent tidal deformation in the orbit determination and data analysis for the Topex/Poseidon mission

The effects of the permanent tidal effects of the Sun and Moon with specific applications to satellite altimeter data reduction are reviewed in the context of a consistent definition of geoid undulations. Three situations are applicable not only for altimeter reduction and geoid definition, but also for the second degree zonal harmonic of the geopotential and the equatorial radius. A recommendation is made that sea surface heights and geoid undulations placed on the Topex/Poseidon geophysical data record should be referred to the mean Earth case (i.e., with the permanent effects of the Sun and Moon included). Numerical constants for a number of parameters, including a flattening and geoid geopotential, are included

Stable dietary isotopes and mtDNA from Woodland period southern Ontario people: results from a tooth sampling protocol

AbstractBioarchaeological research must balance scholarly commitment to the generation of new knowledge, descendants' interests in their collective past, and the now common practice of rapid re-interment of excavated human remains. This paper documents the first results of a negotiated protocol built on the retention of one tooth per archaeologically derived skeleton, teeth that can then be used for destructive testing associated with ancient DNA and stable isotope investigations. Seven archaeological sites dating from the 13th to 16th centuries provided 53 teeth, 10 of which were subdivided between DNA and isotope labs. All tooth roots yielded haplogroup results, and five provided more detailed sequence results. Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen document heavy reliance on maize among all individuals, as well as reliance on a diverse range of fish. This work establishes baseline mtDNA information for Northern Iroquoians, and confirms the value of using dental tissues for dietary reconstruction. Particularly when human remains are fragmentary or co-mingled, this approach holds promise for ongoing incorporation of bioarchaeology into reconstructions of past peoples' lives

Vertical integration and firm boundaries : the evidence

Since Ronald H. Coase's (1937) seminal paper, a rich set of theories has been developed that deal with firm boundaries in vertical or input–output structures. In the last twenty-five years, empirical evidence that can shed light on those theories also has been accumulating. We review the findings of empirical studies that have addressed two main interrelated questions: First, what types of transactions are best brought within the firm and, second, what are the consequences of vertical integration decisions for economic outcomes such as prices, quantities, investment, and profits. Throughout, we highlight areas of potential cross-fertilization and promising areas for future work

Effects of Long Distance Cycling in a Hot Ambient Temperature on White Blood Cell Count

Ultra-endurance events under extreme heat conditions have become popular. Prolonged exercise imposes a transient physiological stress on the immune system; this stress is augmented when exercising in hot ambient temperature conditions. To date, no field study has investigated the immune response to ultra-endurance cycling under extreme heat conditions. To determine the effect of completing a 164km cycling event in a hot ambient temperature on white blood cell count. Thirty-nine experienced cyclists (36 men and 3 women; 49.4 ± 8.6 yr, 83.0 ± 15.0 kg, 176.2 ± 7.3 cm, 19.9 ± 6.6% body fat) participating in the August 2013 Hotter’N Hell Hundred ride held in Wichita Falls, TX, were recruited. Blood samples were collected within 2 hours of the start (PRE; ~0500-0700h) and immediately after completion (POST) of the event. During the event there was minimal cloud cover and the wet bulb globe temperature was 31.4 ± 3.8 ̊C with a maximum of 36.1 ̊C. Samples were analyzed for complete blood count with partial differential. To examine the effect of (a) duration of heat exposure and (b) change in plasma volume, participants were grouped and compared based on finishing time (fastest and slowest 25th percentile) as well as on plasma volume (PV) change (\u3e10, 1-10, and \u3c0%). Total white blood cell (PRE: 5.54 ± 0.23; POST; 12.12 ± 0.46 x 109 L-1), lymphocyte (PRE: 2.47 ± 0.1; POST: 3.52 ± 0.22 x 109 L-1), mid-size range cells (MID) (PRE: 1.27 ± 0.08; POST: 1.49 ± 0.1 x 109 L-1), and granulocyte (PRE: 1.81 ± 0.11; POST: 7.11 ± 0.41 x 109 L-1) increased significantly (p \u3c 0.05) from PRE to POST. This change resulted in a significant decrease in %lymphocytes (PRE: 44.63 ± 1.19; POST: 29.45 ± 1.62%) and %MID (PRE: 23.41 ± 0.79; POST: 12.89 ± 0.86%) and a significant increase in %granulocytes (PRE: 31.96 ± 1.02; POST: 57.66 ± 1.99%) in circulation. No differences were observed for leukocyte subsets between the fastest and slowest 25th percentile finishers or among groups based on PV change. Prolonged cycling (164km) in a hot environment induced changes in abundance of the major circulating immune cell populations; these changes were independent of exercise duration/intensity or PV change

The theory of the firm and its critics: a stocktaking and assessment

Includes bibliographical references."Prepared for Jean-Michel Glachant and Eric Brousseau, eds. New Institutional Economics: A Textbook, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.""This version: August 22, 2005."Since its emergence in the 1970s the modern economic or Coasian theory of the firm has been discussed and challenged by sociologists, heterodox economists, management scholars, and other critics. This chapter reviews and assesses these critiques, focusing on behavioral issues (bounded rationality and motivation), process (including path dependence and the selection argument), entrepreneurship, and the challenge from knowledge-based theories of the firm

No Exit? Withdrawal Rights and the Law of Corporate Reorganizations

Bankruptcy scholarship is largely a debate about the comparative merits of a mandatory regime on one hand and bankruptcy by free design on the other. By the standard account, the current law of corporate reorganization is mandatory. Various rules that cannot be avoided ensure that investors’ actions are limited and they do not exercise their rights against specialized assets in a way that destroys the value of a business as a whole. These rules solve collective action problems and reduce the risk of bargaining failure. But there are costs to a mandatory regime. In particular, investors cannot design their rights to achieve optimal monitoring as they could in a system of bankruptcy by free design. This Article suggests that the academic debate has missed a fundamental feature of the law. Bankruptcy operates on legal entities, not on firms in the economic sense. For this reason, sophisticated investors do not face a mandatory regime at all. The ability of investors to place assets in separate entities gives them the ability to create specific withdrawal rights in the event the firm encounters financial distress. There is nothing mandatory about rules like the automatic stay when assets can be partitioned off into legal entities that are beyond the reach of the bankruptcy judge. Thus, by partitioning assets of one economic enterprise into different legal entities, investors can create a tailored bankruptcy regime. In this way, legal entities serve as building blocks that can be combined to create specific and varied but transparent investor withdrawal rights. This regime of tailored bankruptcy has been unrecognized and underappreciated and may be preferable to both mandatory and free design regimes. By allowing a limited number of investors to opt out of bankruptcy in a particular, discrete, and visible way, investors as a group may be able to both limit the risk of bargaining failure and at the same time enjoy the disciplining effect that a withdrawal right brings with it