Nonlinearities in the Impact of Industry Structure: the Case of Concentration and Intra-industry Variability in Rates of Return

This paper addresses the issue of industry concentration andintra-industry variability in rates of return. An inverted ‘U’relationship is hypothesized and tested in which one observeslow levels of variability both at high and low levels of concentration,in one case as a result of collusion and the other as a resultof competition. In the process, the paper highlights the benefitsassociated with combining both industry and firm levels of analyses.     

Heat and mass transfer in abnormal metal plasticity

The authors show the decisive role and special features of heat and mass transfer in the mechanism of abnormal plasticity and in formation of thermomechanical dissipative structures under large plastic strains by the examples of computer modeling of stretching of a specimen, high-pressure torsional shear in a Bridgeman chamber, and shearing strain of a material in the form of flow of a quasiviscous liquid in a channel with local heat removal via a stationary wall.Izhevsk Mechanical Institute. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 67, Nos. 1–2, pp. 127–131, July–August, 1994.     

An automated film reader for DNA sequencing based on homomorphicdeconvolution

An automated reader for electrophoresis based DNA sequencing methods is described that provides fast and accurate sequence determination. Digitized sequencing lanes are processed with homomorphic blind deconvolution in preparation for peak detection, interlane alignment, peak refinement and base calling. Initial reads from direct blot sequencing films have error rates of about 1% at the rate of 5 nucleotides/s. Typical read lengths are 500-600 nucleotides. The described reader is a significant improvement over existing readers and could be an essential component in the sequencing efforts of the Human Genome Project     

Pressure ulcer development

VDD pacing follow-up is similar in pediatric and adult patients. Atrial and ventricular pacing parameters are stable during 2-year follow-up in children, and single-pass lead VDD pacing is recommended when the sinus node function is normal.     

Improving the chemical resistance of glass containers by thermochemical treatment with a reagent solution

A way to increase the chemical resistance of glass containers by injecting a quantity (0.2–1.0 ml) of a special reagent solution into freshly shaped items is considered.Translated from Steklo i Keramika, No. 5, pp. 8–11, 1996.     

Evaluation of hot hardness and creep of a 350 grade commercial maraging steel

The hardening response and the indentation creep of a 350 grade commercial maraging steel were evaluated using a hot hardness tester. The hardness versus temperature plot exhibited three distinct regions. Hardness response was noted between 500–800 K. The unusually high values of activation energy and stress exponent obtained during the creep experiment could be rationalized by a novel concept of introducing a back stress term in the indentation creep relation. The corrected value of the activation energy was found to be reasonably in agreement with the activation energy for diffusion of Ni in iron. Results are supplemented with microstructural observation.     

Elimination of phase noise of pulsed laser diodes in electroopticsampling systems

The multimode operation of pulsed laser diode sources is converted into excess noise in electrooptic probing systems for electrical waveforms and prevents measurements with shot-noise-limited sensitivity. The transfer function of the sampling system is determined and analyzed in terms of the wavelength and electric field dependence. It is shown that by proper orientation of the polarizing components within the optical beam path, points of operation can by found which have both a vanishing wavelength dependence of the transfer function and maximum sensitivity to the electric fields to be measured. Excess noise sources due to wavelength fluctuations of the laser are thus eliminated, and shot-noise-limited voltage resolution is obtained. The system has been optimized to yield a voltage sensitivity of 2.3 mV/√Hz for a longitudinal LiNbO₃ probe crystal     

The Danish Twin Apartment Study – Part II: Mathematical modeling of the relative strength of sources of indoor air pollution

Abstract This study deals with the modeling of air pollution in apartments from laboratory measurements of source strengths, using formaldehyde and Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOCs) as model pollutants. The sources in two test apartments were grouped into two: building-related sources and occupant-related sources. The measured source strengths and ventilation rates were used for the prediction of concentrations expected in the apartments. These predictions were compared to measurements in the apartment over 12 months. The conclusions were that the model predictions based on emission rates measured in the laboratory can be used to predict the long-term concentration of the two model pollutants in the apartments. Considering the measured differences in ventilation between the apartments, an occupant emission rate of between 0.2 and 0.3 mg/h/kg body weight could be estimated. Based on previous suggested limits of acceptable exposures of humans to VOCs, an acceptable average emission rate of VOCs from building materials in general was estimated to be about 30 (μ/m²/h. The modeling showed that during the first 200 days, building materials dominated the emissions. After this, sources relating to the occupants dominated. On average about half of the VOC pollution originated from the building materials.