Has the time come for preprints in biology?

Preprints, non-peer-reviewed drafts of manuscripts available on the Internet, have been used in conjunction with peer review and publication in journals in the physical sciences for almost 25 years. Recently, more scientists have been discussing whether preprints can play a similar role in biological and biomedical research. Here, I discuss my excitement and concerns about the role that preprints can play in disseminating research findings in the life sciences

Life after 100? A Leader’s Guide to Resilient Family Businesses

How many businesses survive more than a 100years? Of the businessesthat do survive,how many remain financially robust? If the lifespan of a company on the Standard and Poor’s (S&P)500 list is an indication of longevity,then evidence shows that ithas shrunk from 33 years in 1964 to 24 years by 2016.By 2027, itis forecast to shrink to just 12 years.1Put differently, at the current survival rate, more than 75%of thecompanies currently quoted on the S&P 500 woulddisappearin the next decade.Family-ownedbusinesses tend to mirror these survival patterns. Alargeproportion of family-ownedbusinesses struggle to survive beyond the second orthird generation.According to the Family Business Institute, only 30% of these organizations last into a second generation. Only 12% remain viable into a third anda miniscule3% continueinto the fourth generation or beyond.What have these 3% businesses and the familybusiness owners done differently that is likely to have contributed to their resilience? What can be learnt about the group that have livedbeyond 100

Internal conversion coefficients for M4 transition for tellurium

Internal conversion coefficients for M4 transition in telluriu

Rule Based Transliteration Scheme for English to Punjabi

Machine Transliteration has come out to be an emerging and a very important research area in the field of machine translation. Transliteration basically aims to preserve the phonological structure of words. Proper transliteration of name entities plays a very significant role in improving the quality of machine translation. In this paper we are doing machine transliteration for English-Punjabi language pair using rule based approach. We have constructed some rules for syllabification. Syllabification is the process to extract or separate the syllable from the words. In this we are calculating the probabilities for name entities (Proper names and location). For those words which do not come under the category of name entities, separate probabilities are being calculated by using relative frequency through a statistical machine translation toolkit known as MOSES. Using these probabilities we are transliterating our input text from English to Punjabi

CHINA´S WTO ACCESSION: ITS IMPACT ON CHINESE EMPLOYMENT

It is often claimed that the WTO membership will benefit China by increasing exports and employment and forcing domestic firms to improve efficiency through competition. Benefits are expected to accrue through improved resource allocation and greater economic efficiency resulting from trade liberalization and greater global competition. In the paper we argue that although some sectors will benefit from competition others will suffer a great deal especially in the short and medium terms. The net overall benefits are likely to accrue only in the long run. During the transition period China will face enormous problems of restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and banking, insurance and financial services, entailing significant loss of employment. The employment impact of the accession with special reference to SOEs is considered since they are generally less competitive than the non-state enterprises. Reduction in SOE employment may not be compensated by an increase in employment in the non-state sector. The experience of three specific industries is discussed: textiles and clothing, automobiles and household appliances. Besides the unemployment impact of the accession, the paper examines the possibility of a ‘flying geese model’ of trade and development working within China to maintain its global competitiveness on account of low labour costs in the hinterland. It also discusses China’s possible response to global competition to protect employment, for example. Three types of response are considered: non-compliance of the WTO accord, devaluation, and a production shift from tradeables to non-tradeables.