Improved design of item in high speed rotating machinery

Greater centrifugal radial growth of the preimpeller hub with respect to the impeller and nut at operating speed alleviates clamping and alignment problems in high speed rotating machinery. Design results in axial tightness and radial piloting of the preimpeller

Firm development as an integrated process: with evidence from the General Motors-Fisher Body case

This paper argues that an adequate approach to the firm should be able to accommodate the complexities of actual firm development. The latter is conceptualized in terms of three general stages: prime movers or drivers of change, change processes, and change attractors. Furthermore, any "real-world" firm is both a technical and an institutional unit. To emphasize the importance of "real firm" analysis, the discussion presented here revolves around an understanding of the much considered case of General Motors and Fisher Body integration has developed over time. Generalization from this case suggests that an integrated view of the firm is necessary that combines the three stages and the two bases (technical and institutional). Six general perspectives on the firm are identified as having technical or institutional bases that are relevant in each of the three stages. This integrated approach to the firm is explored in terms of the general topic of firm development. It is concluded that, without an integrated approach to firm development, a potentially biased or incomplete analysis can result

Colloidal aggregation and critical Casimir forces

A recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 156101 (2009)] reports the experimental observation of aggregation of colloidal particles dispersed in a liquid mixture of heavy water and 3-methylpyridine. The experimental data are interpreted in terms of a model which accounts solely for the competing effects of the interparticle electrostatic repulsion and of the attractive critical Casimir force. Here we show, however, that the reported aggregation actually occurs within ranges of values of the correlation length and of the Debye screening length ruled out by the proposed model and that a significant part of the experimental data presented in the Letter cannot be consistently interpreted in terms of such a model.Comment: 1 page, 1 figure; For the reply see arXiv:1007.077

Firm corruption in the presence of an auditor

This paper develops a framework to explore firm corruption taking account of interaction with an auditor. The basic idea is that an auditor can provide auditing and other (consultancy) services. The extent of the other services depends on firm profitability. Hence auditor profitability can increase with firm corruption that may provide an incentive to collude in corrupt practices. This basic idea is developed using a game theoretic framework. It is shown that a multiplicity of equilibria exist from stable corruption, through auditor controlled corruption, via multiple equilibria to honesty on behalf of both actors. Following the development of the model various policy options are highlighted that show the difficulty of completely removing corrupt practices

The role of BST2/tetherin in feline retrovirus infection

Pathogenic retroviral infections of mammals have induced the evolution of cellular anti-viral restriction factors and have shaped their biological activities. This intrinsic immunity plays an important role in controlling viral replication and imposes a barrier to viral cross-species transmission. Well-studied examples of such host restriction factors are TRIM5α, an E3 ubiquitin ligase that binds incoming retroviral capsids in the cytoplasm via its C-terminal PRY/SPRY (B30.2) domain and targets them for proteasomal degradation, and APOBEC3 proteins, cytidine deaminases that induce hypermutation and impair viral reverse transcription. Tetherin (BST-2, CD317) is an interferon-inducible transmembrane protein that potently inhibits the release of nascent retrovirus particles in single-cycle replication assays. However, whether the primary biological activity of tetherin in vivo is that of a restriction factor remains uncertain as recent studies on human tetherin suggest that it is unable to prevent spreading infection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The feline tetherin homologue resembles human tetherin in amino acid sequence, protein topology and anti-viral activity. Transiently expressed feline tetherin displays potent inhibition of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and HIV-1 particle release. However, stable ectopic expression of feline tetherin in a range of feline cell lines has no inhibitory effect on the growth of either primary or cell culture-adapted strains of FIV. By comparing and contrasting the activities of the felid and primate tetherins against their respective immunodeficiency-causing lentiviruses we may gain insight into the contribution of tetherins to the control of lentiviral replication and the evolution of lentiviral virulence

Fluid adsorption near an apex: Covariance between complete and critical wetting

Critical wetting is an elusive phenomenon for solid-fluid interfaces. Using interfacial models we show that the diverging length scales, which characterize complete wetting at an apex, precisely mimic critical wetting with the apex angle behaving as the contact angle. Transfer matrix, renormalization group (RG) and mean field analysis (MF) shows this covariance is obeyed in 2D, 3D and for long and short ranged forces. This connection should be experimentally accesible and provides a means of checking theoretical predictions for critical wetting.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Moduli decay in the hot early Universe

We consider moduli fields interacting with thermalized relativistic matter. We determine the temperature dependence of their damping rate and find it is dominated by thermal effects in the high temperature regime, i.e. for temperatures larger than their mass. For a simple scalar model the damping rate is expressed through the known matter bulk viscosity. The high temperature damping rate is always smaller than the Hubble rate, so that thermal effects are not sufficient for solving the cosmological moduli problem.Comment: Numerical error in the final result for the damping rate corrected, conclusions of the paper are not affecte

High Redshift Quasars and Star Formation in the Early Universe

In order to derive information on the star formation history in the early universe we observed 6 high-redshift (z=3.4) quasars in the near-infrared to measure the relative iron and \mgii emission strengths. A detailed comparison of the resulting spectra with those of low-redshift quasars show essentially the same FeII/MgII emission ratios and very similar continuum and line spectral properties, indicating a lack of evolution of the relative iron to magnesium abundance of the gas since z=3.4 in bright quasars. On the basis of current chemical evolution scenarios of galaxies, where magnesium is produced in massive stars ending in type II SNe, while iron is formed predominantly in SNe of type Ia with a delay of ~1 Gyr and assuming as cosmological parameters H_o = 72 km/s Mpc, Omega_M = 0.3, and Omega_Lambda = 0.7$, we conclude that major star formation activity in the host galaxies of our z=3.4 quasars must have started already at an epoch corresponding to z_f ~= 10, when the age of the universe was less than 0.5 Gyrs.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, ApJ in pres