A sector analysis for RFID technologies: fundamental and technical analysis for financial decision making problems

Automatic identification technologies have been used in a wide range of applications for reducing the amount of time and labor needed to input data and improving data accuracy. As an important automatic identification technology, radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies allow contactless reading and these technologies are particularly successful in manufacturing and other environments where traditional identification technologies such as bar codes can not perform well. By integrating the RFID technology into their business models, companies may save time, lower labor cost, improve products quality and provide better service. RFID is the wireless technology that uses RF communication to identify, track and manage objects and collect and store data. RFID technology enables companies to develop applications that create value by tracking and identifying objects, animals or people. Business applications of RFID technology can be seen in areas such as manufacturing, supply chain management, software integration, security systems, asset tracking and many others. RFID technology was predicted to be one of the “top ten” technologies in 2004 by CNN. Although, the RFID market is less than five years old, it has been applied to many different industries, from retail industry to logistics, or from healthcare to service business industry – and it is still growing. Particularly, RFID has fundamental influences on today's retailing and supply chain management for applications like asset tracking the inventory control and management. RFID technology also finds major application in mobile phones and is widely used in toll collection of highways, for payments in restaurants, vending machines, retail and parking lots. There are a wide range of RFID systems currently being used or being developed. Examples to these systems include but not limited to the following; automatic vehicle and personnel access control for security (Simpson, 2006), airport passenger and baggage tracking (Ferguson, 2006), tracing blood for cutting down errors such as giving patients wrong blood types (Ranger, 2006), payment process systems (Ramachandran, 2006), production control in manufacturing (Liu & Miao, 2006), transfusion medicine (Knels, 2006) real-time inventory control by automated identification of items in warehouses, tracking and management of physical files, tracking of books in the libraries (Shadid, 2005). For some other applications, interested reader is referred to (Finkenzeller, 2003; Smith, 2004). RFID solution providers claim that their technology and solutions bring significant benefits and have valuable advantages in practice. As new RFID solutions being developed and more RFID tags and equipments being used, these solutions will become more cost effective and RFID businesses are expected to grow rapidly. Since RFID is fairly new, it’s difficult to measure resulting sales increases or heightened customer satisfaction quotients. On the other hand, according to IDC estimation (IDC is a subsidiary of International Data Group, a leading technology media, research, and events company and provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets), companies in the retail sector will spend nearly $1.3 billion on RFID in their supply chain operations in 2008, compared to about$91.5 million in 2003 which corresponds to annual growth rate of 70 percent. In a similar look; the Wireless Data Research Group projected that the global market for RFID increased from $1 billion in 2003 to$3 billion in 2007 (Asif & Mandviwalla, 2005). There are two major drivers of this growth. The first one is the adoption of RFID technology by major retailers and government agencies. The second one is the reduction in the price of RFID tags, readers, and IT systems required to deploy RFID. Given the huge potential of RFID technology, there has been a huge emergence of RFID specialty companies and the development of RFID practices within many market-leading companies. Due to huge emergence, it is desirable to make a sector analysis. In this study, we perform a sector analysis for RFID technologies for researchers and analysts. We investigate public RFID companies traded on the stock exchange markets, summarize their financial performance, describe their RF products, services, and applications, and perform fundamental and technical analysis

Pyramiding multiple genes for resistance to PVY, TSWV and PMMoV in pepper using molecular markers

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is one of the most important vegetables cultivated worldwide. Many pests and pathogens cause economic yield losses in pepper. Potato virus Y (PVY), Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) and Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) are considered among the most destructive viruses affecting pepper in the world. Because chemical treatments have limited success for managing PVY, TSWV and PMMoV, resistant varieties are considered to be the most effective means of controlling these viruses. In this study, resistance genes to these viruses were successfully transferred to the superior sweet Charleston pepper line 'Y-CAR' using molecular markers and biological assays. As a result, a new line which is resistant to PVY, TSWV and PMMoV was developed. The results also showed the applicability of a pyramiding strategy for breeding multiple virus resistance in pepper. © Verlag Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, TEYDEP foundation (3080171

Unitary Precoding and Basis Dependency of MMSE Performance for Gaussian Erasure Channels

We consider the transmission of a Gaussian vector source over a multi-dimensional Gaussian channel where a random or a fixed subset of the channel outputs are erased. Within the setup where the only encoding operation allowed is a linear unitary transformation on the source, we investigate the MMSE performance, both in average, and also in terms of guarantees that hold with high probability as a function of the system parameters. Under the performance criterion of average MMSE, necessary conditions that should be satisfied by the optimal unitary encoders are established and explicit solutions for a class of settings are presented. For random sampling of signals that have a low number of degrees of freedom, we present MMSE bounds that hold with high probability. Our results illustrate how the spread of the eigenvalue distribution and the unitary transformation contribute to these performance guarantees. The performance of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is also investigated. As a benchmark, we investigate the equidistant sampling of circularly wide-sense stationary (c.w.s.s.) signals, and present the explicit error expression that quantifies the effects of the sampling rate and the eigenvalue distribution of the covariance matrix of the signal. These findings may be useful in understanding the geometric dependence of signal uncertainty in a stochastic process. In particular, unlike information theoretic measures such as entropy, we highlight the basis dependence of uncertainty in a signal with another perspective. The unitary encoding space restriction exhibits the most and least favorable signal bases for estimation.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Vibrations due to Dynamic Compaction

Ground vibrations due to dynamic compaction (DC), at a harbor site were measured to investigate whether the magnitude of vibrations were unacceptably strong to cause any damage to or increase existing damage on the surrounding structures experienced August 17, 1999 Kocaeli, Gölcük earthquake (M~7.4). The site is located in city of Kocaeli at the seaside of The Port of Derince. It was a reclaimed land formed with Hereke limestones. The measured data included vibrations induced by the tamping energy of DC both at the vicinity of nearby structures and within the DC site. The site was surrounded by a shallow isolation trench all along the land sides. This paper presents the case and the characteristics of vibration such as peak values of the records, Fourier spectrum and amplitude attenuations over distance. The predominant frequencies and amplitude of vibrations were compared to the related code limits to estimate the effect of vibrations on the existing structures

Učinci carskog reza na peroksidaciju lipida i neke antioksidanse u krvi netom oteljene teladi.

The mode of delivery may have a considerable effect on the state and health of the newborn. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a Caesarean section on oxidant and antioxidant status in newborn calves. This study included the neonates of 8 normally calved cows and 8 cows who had undergone by Caesarean section. Malondialdehyde concentrations were significantly higher in the calves delivered by caesarean section compared to the calves of normally calved cows, but catalase activity was significantly lower (P<0.01). Glutathione concentrations tended to increase in the calves delivered by Caesarean section compared to the calves of normally calved cows. There were no significant differences in the glutathione peroxidase activity between the groups. Our results suggest that the malondialdehyde concentrations and catalase activities, which show lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status in newborn calves, change due to Caesarean section. In conclusion, newborn calves are exposed to higher oxidative stress in Caesarean section.Način porođaja može znatno utjecati na stanje i zdravlje novorođenčeta. Stoga je svrha ovoga rada istražiti učinak carskoga reza na oksidacijsko i antioksidacijsko stanje u netom oteljene teladi. Istraživanje je provedeno na osam normalno oteljene teladi i na osam teladi oteljene carskim rezom. Koncentracije malondialdehida bile su značajno veće u teladi oteljene carskim rezom nego li u prirodne oteljene teladi, ali je aktivnost katalaze bila značajno slabija (P<0,01). Koncentracije glutationa bile su povećane u teladi oteljene carskim rezom u odnosu na prirodno oteljenu telad. Nisu bile ustanovljene značajne razlike u aktivnosti glutation peroksidaze među dvjema skupinama. Rezultati upućuju na zaključak da su koncentracije malondialdehida i aktivnost katalaze kao pokazatelji lipidne peroksidacije i antioksidacijskog stanja u novorođene teladi bile promijenjene zbog carskog reza. To govori da je netom oteljena telad zbog carskog reza izložena jačem oksidacijskom stresu

TeV Gamma Rays from Geminga and the Origin of the GeV Positron Excess

The Geminga pulsar has long been one of the most intriguing MeV-GeV gamma-ray point sources. We examine the implications of the recent Milagro detection of extended, multi-TeV gamma-ray emission from Geminga, finding that this reveals the existence of an ancient, powerful cosmic-ray accelerator that can plausibly account for the multi-GeV positron excess that has evaded explanation. We explore a number of testable predictions for gamma-ray and electron/positron experiments (up to ~100 TeV) that can confirm the first "direct" detection of a cosmic-ray source.Comment: 4 pages and 3 figures; Minor revisions, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Causality Relationship Between Interest Rate of Deposit Banks and Profit Share Rate of Islamic Banks in Turkey

The popularity of Islamic banking is increasing day by day. On the other hand, some people also criticized this system in some aspect. One of the criticism is that profit sharing rates of Islamic banks are similar to interest rate of deposit banks. While considering this issue, this study aims to identify the causality relationship between profit sharing rate and interest rate in Turkey. Within this scope, monthly, quarterly, 6-months and yearly data for the period between 2000 and 2016 was analyzed separately. In addition to this situation, Toda Yamamoto causality analysis was used in this study so as to achieve this objective. According to the results of the analysis, it was determined that there is a significant causality relationship between these rates. In other words, it was concluded that interest rate of the deposit banks is the main indicator of the profit share rate of Islamic banks in Turkey. The main reason behind this situation is that indicators in the market affect both deposit banks and Islamic banks. Therefore, it is inevitable that deposit rates and profit share rates will be similar when deposit banks and Islamic banks perform in the same market

Dijagnostika supkliničkog mastitisa zasnovana na aktivnosti arginaze u mlijeku.

The aim of this study was to determine the relationships between subclinical mastitis and milk arginase activity in dairy cows. Thirty, various breed 4-8 year old cows from Firat University Animal Hospital were used in the study. Subclinical mastitis was diagnosed by the California Mastitis Test (CMT) combined with bacteriological examination of milk samples. The subclinical mastitis group consisted of fifteen clinically healthy but CMT and microbiologically positive animals. CMT and microbiologically negative animals (n = 15) served as the control group. Arginase activity in milk samples was measured by spectrophotometer using the thiocemicarbazide diacetylmonoxime urea (TDMU) method and protein was determined with the folin phenol reagent. Arginase activity in the milk of animals with subclinical mastitis (0.26 ± 0.07 U/mg protein) significantly increased compared to the arginase activity in the milk from healthy animals in the control group (0.10 ± 0.03 U/mg protein). Milk enzyme activity in the mildly severe disease (0.26 ± 0.01 U/mg protein) was significantly lower than in the moderately severe disease (0.30 ± 0.01 U/mg). No relationship was found between the nature of the bacterial infection of the cows with subclinical mastitis and their milk arginase activity. It was concluded that assay of milk arginase activity may be used as an additional laboratory method for the diagnosis of subclinical mastitis.Cilj istraživanja bio je utvrditi povezanost između supkliničkog mastitisa i aktivnosti arginaze u mlijeku krava. U istraživanje je uključeno 30 krava u dobi od 4 do 8 godina. Krave su bile različitih pasmina i pacijenti bolnice Firat Sveučilišta. Supklinički mastitis dijagnosticiran je kombinacijom kalifornijskog mastitis testa (KMT) i bakteriološke pretrage uzoraka mlijeka. Skupinu sa supkliničkim mastitisom činilo je 15 klinički zdravih krava pozitivnih pretragom s KMT i bakteriološki pozitivnim nalazom. Petnaest krava s pozitivnim KMT i bakteriološki negativnim nalazom poslužilo je kao kontrolna skupina. Aktivnost arginaze u uzorcima mlijeka utvrđena je spektrofotometrijski, uz primjenu tiocemikarbazid diacetilmonoksim ureja metode (TDMU), a bjelančevine su bile određene pomoću folin fenol reagensa. Aktivnost arginaze u mlijeku krava sa supkliničkim mastitisom (0,26 ± 0,07 U/mg bjelančevina) bila je značajno povišena u usporedbi s uzorcima iz mlijeka zdravih krava kontrolne skupine (0,10 ± 0,03 U/mg bjelančevina). U krava sa slabo izraženim simptomima bolesti, aktivnost enzima u mlijeku (0,26 ± 0,01 U/mg protein) bila je značajno niža u odnosu na krave s umjerenim simptomima (0,30 ± 0,01 U/mg). Nije utvrđena povezanost između prirode bakterijske infekcije i supkliničkog mastitisa odnosno aktivnosti arginaze u mlijeku. Zaključak je da analiza aktivnosti arginaze može poslužiti kao dodatna laboratorijska metoda za dijagnostiku supkliničkog mastitisa

Best-Bet Astrophysical Neutrino Sources

Likely astrophysical sources of detectable high-energy (>> TeV) neutrinos are considered. Based on gamma-ray emission properties, the most probable sources of neutrinos are argued to be GRBs, blazars, microquasars, and supernova remnants. Diffuse neutrino sources are also briefly considered.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, in Proc. of TeV-Particle Astrophysics II, Madison, WI, 28-31 Aug, 200