Intelligent man/machine interfaces on the space station

Some important topics in the development of good, intelligent, usable man/machine interfaces for the Space Station are discussed. These computer interfaces should adhere strictly to three concepts or doctrines: generality, simplicity, and elegance. The motivation for natural language interfaces and their use and value on the Space Station, both now and in the future, are discussed

Is HIV-1 RNA dimerization a prerequisite for packaging? Yes, no, probably?

During virus assembly, all retroviruses specifically encapsidate two copies of full-length viral genomic RNA in the form of a non-covalently linked RNA dimer. The absolute conservation of this unique genome structure within the Retroviridae family is strong evidence that a dimerized genome is of critical importance to the viral life cycle. An obvious hypothesis is that retroviruses have evolved to preferentially package two copies of genomic RNA, and that dimerization ensures the proper packaging specificity for such a genome. However, this implies that dimerization must be a prerequisite for genome encapsidation, a notion that has been debated for many years. In this article, we review retroviral RNA dimerization and packaging, highlighting the research that has attempted to dissect the intricate relationship between these two processes in the context of HIV-1, and discuss the therapeutic potential of these putative antiretroviral targets

HRM in Multinationals’ Operations in China: Business, People, and HR Issues

This paper presents the results of a study on the HR function in the Chinese operations of large multinational companies. Surveys of both line and HR executives in these firms were conducted. Results reveal that line executives are more sensitive than HR executives to criticality of people management issues as business issues, and that they see HR\u27s strategic orientation as the most critical area for improvement. The challenges and opportunities implied by these results are discussed

Does Company Specific News Effect the US, UK, and Australian Markets within 60 minutes?

The efficient market hypothesis states that an efficient market rapidly incorporates all available information into the price of the asset. It has been well established that no market, particularly the stock market, is truly efficient as there are too many traders with differing strategies, and differing access to and interpretation of information. Despite this there is considerable evidence that the stock market does assimilate new information into prices. There has however been little research into the intraday effect of company specific news. In this paper we investigate the intraday effect of company specific news on the US, UK, and Australian markets. We use a scheme to determine whether the markets react to news by determining the likelihood of certain events occurring, and the likelihood of news occurring within 60 minutes of them, and compare the two. We find that there is strong evidence that these markets do react to news within 60 minutes, and indicate which events are most likely to correlate to news.Return; Volatility; News

Regularly spaced subsums of integer partitions

For integer partitions $\lambda :n=a_1+...+a_k$, where $a_1\ge a_2\ge >...\ge a_k\ge 1$, we study the sum $a_1+a_3+...$ of the parts of odd index. We show that the average of this sum, over all partitions $\lambda$ of $n$, is of the form $n/2+(\sqrt{6}/(8\pi))\sqrt{n}\log{n}+c_{2,1}\sqrt{n}+O(\log{n}).$ More generally, we study the sum $a_i+a_{m+i}+a_{2m+i}+...$ of the parts whose indices lie in a given arithmetic progression and we show that the average of this sum, over all partitions of $n$, is of the form $n/m+b_{m,i}\sqrt{n}\log{n}+c_{m,i}\sqrt{n}+O(\log{n})$, with explicitly given constants $b_{m,i},c_{m,i}$. Interestingly, for $m$ odd and $i=(m+1)/2$ we have $b_{m,i}=0$, so in this case the error term is of lower order. The methods used involve asymptotic formulas for the behavior of Lambert series and the Zeta function of Hurwitz. We also show that if $f(n,j)$ is the number of partitions of $n$ the sum of whose parts of even index is $j$, then for every $n$, $f(n,j)$ agrees with a certain universal sequence, Sloane's sequence \texttt{#A000712}, for $j\le n/3$ but not for any larger $j$

Evaluating lightning hazards to building environments using explicit numerical solutions of Maxwell's equations

The objective here is to describe the lightning hazards to buildings and their internal environments using advanced formulations of Maxwell's Equations. The method described is the Three Dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain Solution. It can be used to solve for the lightning interaction with such structures in three dimensions with the inclusion of a considerable amount of detail. Special techniques were developed for including wire, plumbing, and rebar into the model. Some buildings have provisions for lightning protection in the form of air terminals connected to a ground counterpoise system. It is shown that fields and currents within these structures can be significantly high during a lightning strike. Time lapse video presentations were made showing the electric and magnetic field distributions on selected cross sections of the buildings during a simulated lightning strike

The Oxyporinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) of Illinois

The monogeneric subfamily Oxyporinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) is composed of the genus Oxyporus Fabricius. Members of the genus are obligate inhabitants of higher, fleshy mushrooms. The Illinois fauna of Oxyporus includes nine species from two subgenera which are treated in this study. A key to the identification of adults, descriptions, fungal host lists, and distributional maps are provided for each species. The most commonly collected species in Illinois are O. occipitalis, O. stygicus, O. major, and O. vittatus; uncommon or rare species are O. lateralis, O. quinquemaculatus (a new record for Illinois), O. femoralis femoralis, O. rufipennis, and O. lepidus. Over 1000 host records were compiled for the fungal host lists of the subfamily. The most common fungal hosts for Illinois species of Oxyporus were: O. lateralis from Naematoloma fasciculare, O. occipitalis from Hygrophorus russula, O. quinquemaculatus from Pluteus cervinus, O. femoralis femoralis from Naematoloma fasciculare, O. stygicus from Pleurotus ostreatus, O. rufipennis from Pleurotus ostreatus, O. major from Lepiota acutaesquamosa, O. vittatus from Boletus sp., and O. lepidus from Pholiota sp. Aspects of the fungal habitat, structural and behavioral adaptations of the Oxyporinae to mushroom habitat, and patterns of Oxyporinae-host relationships are discussed

A Study of the Degradation of Polyoxymethylene

This thesis is primarily concerned with the kinetics and mechanism of the thermal degradation of linear high molecular weight polyoxymethylene with hydroxyl and acetate chain-ends