Does inward foreign direct investment boost the productivity of domestic firms?

Are there productivity spillovers from FDI to domestic firms, and, if so, how much should host countries be willing to pay to attract FDI? To examine these questions, we use a plant-level panel covering U.K. manufacturing from 1973 through 1992. Consistent with spillovers, we estimate a robust and significantly positive correlation between a domestic plant's TFP and the foreign-affiliate share of activity in that plant's industry. Typical estimates suggest that a 10-percentage-point increase in foreign presence in a U.K. industry raises the TFP of that industry's domestic plants by about 0.5%. We also use these estimates to calculate the per-job value of these spillovers at about £2,400 in 2000 prices ($4,300). These calculated values appear to be less than per-job incentives governments have granted in recent high-profile cases, in some cases several times less

Evaluating some computer enhancement algorithms that improve the visibility of cometary morphology

The observed morphology of cometary comae is determined by ejection circumstances and the interaction of the ejected material with the local environment. Anisotropic emission can provide useful information on such things as orientation of the nucleus, location of active areas on the nucleus, and the formation of ion structure near the nucleus. However, discrete coma features are usually diffuse, of low amplitude, and superimposed on a steep intensity gradient radial to the nucleus. To improve the visibility of these features, a variety of digital enhancement algorithms were employed with varying degrees of success. They usually produce some degree of spatial filtering, and are chosen to optimize visibility of certain detail. Since information in the image is altered, it is important to understand the effects of parameter selection and processing artifacts can have on subsequent interpretation. Using the criteria that the ideal algorithm must enhance low contrast features while not introducing misleading artifacts (or features that cannot be seen in the stretched, unprocessed image), the suitability of various algorithms that aid cometary studies were assessed. The strong and weak points of each are identified in the context of maintaining positional integrity of features at the expense of photometric information

Measuring Market-Product Integration

Globalization -- the integration of national economies -- has become one of the most widely used buzzwords of the late 20th century. Yet there are remarkably few statistical measures of product-market integration across time, countries, and goods. In this paper we present some new measures of product-market integration based on price and quantity data. We find evidence of greater integration, but we also find that this process has not been uniform over time, countries, or goods.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the mechanical actuation subsystem, volume 2

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA approach features a top-down analysis of the hardware to determine draft failure modes, criticality, and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the proposed Post 51-L NASA FMEA/CIL baseline that was available. A resolution of each discrepancy from the comparison was provided through additional analysis as required. These discrepancies were flagged as issues, and recommendations were made based on the FMEA data available at the time. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter Mechanical Actuation System (MAS) hardware. Specifically, the MAS hardware consists of the following components: Air Data Probe (ADP); Elevon Seal Panel (ESP); External Tank Umbilical (ETU); Ku-Band Deploy (KBD); Payload Bay Doors (PBD); Payload Bay Radiators (PBR); Personnel Hatches (PH); Vent Door Mechanism (VDM); and Startracker Door Mechanism (SDM). Criticality was assigned based upon the severity of the effect for each failure mode. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA analysis worksheets and contains the potential critical items list, detailed analysis, and NASA FMEA/CIL to IOA worksheet cross reference and recommendations

Q^2-evolution of nucleon-to-resonance transition form factors in a QCD-inspired vector-meson-dominance model

We adopt the vector-meson-dominance approach to investigate Q^2-evolution of N-R transition form factors (N denotes nucleon and R an excited resonance) in the first and second resonance regions. The developed model is based upon conventional NR\gamma-interaction Lagrangians, introducing three form factors for spin-3/2 resonances and two form factors for spin-1/2 nucleon excitations. Lagrangian form factors are expressed as dispersionlike expansions with four or five poles corresponding to the lowest excitations of the mesons \rho(770) and \omega(782). Correct high-Q^2 form factor behavior predicted by perturbative QCD is due to phenomenological logarithmic renormalization of electromagnetic coupling constants and linear superconvergence relations between the parameters of the meson spectrum. The model is found to be in good agreement with all the experimental data on Q^2-dependence of the transitions N-\Delta(1232), N-N(1440), N-N(1520), N-N(1535). We present fit results and model predictions for high-energy experiments proposed by JLab. Besides, we make special emphasis on the transition to perturbative domain of N-\Delta(1232) form factors.Comment: 22 pages, 22 PS figures, REVTeX 4; v2: +3 refs, minor editorial change

A Handheld low-mass, impact instrument to measure nondestructive firmness of fruit

A portable, handheld impact firmness sensor was designed for nondestructive measurement of fruit firmness while the fruit remain attached to the tree or for use in other remote locations where the use of a benchtop instrument would be impractical. The instrument design was based on the low-mass, constant velocity, impact-type measurement concept. Validation tests of the handheld sensor using `Bartlett' pears from orchards in California and Washington showed excellent agreement (r2 = 0.92 and 0.96, respectively) with both ASAE Standard method S368.2 for determining the apparent modulus of intact fruit and the impact firmness scores from a commercial benchtop impact firmness instrument

Methods used for protein extraction

Methods used for protein extractio

Time-Resolved Ultrafast Transient Polarization Spectroscopy to Investigate Nonlinear Processes and Dynamics in Electronically Excited Molecules on the Femtosecond Time Scale

We report a novel experimental technique to investigate ultrafast dynamics in photoexcited molecules by probing the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility. A non-colinear 3-pulse scheme is developed to probe the ultrafast dynamics of excited electronic states using the optical Kerr effect by time-resolved polarization spectroscopy. Optical heterodyne and optical homodyne detection are demonstrated to measure the third-order nonlinear optical response for the S1 excited state of liquid nitrobenzene, which is populated by 2-photon absorption of a 780 nm 35 fs excitation pulse.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Changes from previous version: added panel labels to figures 3-