8,307 research outputs found

    Bovine papillomavirus: old system, new lessons?

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    Flexural strength of lithospere in central Asia and development of intracontinental orogens : the Tien Shan

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    Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 1996.Includes bibliographical references.by Zhou Yu.M.S

    On using Directional Information for Parameter Space Decomposition in Ellipse Detection

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    In this paper we use the parametric polar representation to extend the application of edge directional information from circle to ellipse extraction. As a result we obtain a mapping which decomposes the parameter space required for ellipse extraction into two independent sub-spaces and one final histogram accumulator. The mapping includes the tangent of the angle of the first and second directional derivatives. These tangents are computed by considering edge direction at two border points. We show that the use of gradient information for parameter space decomposition avoids the intensive point labelling imposed by geometric constraints used by other approaches

    The Meetings Incentives Conferences and Events Industry in Hang Zhou, China: Residents' Perceptions of Policies

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    This thesis was initiated by the occurrence of the 2006 Hang Zhou World Leisure Expo. Hang Zhou is the author's home city, and thus the Expo was of interest, and from this interest came the idea of conducting research into residents' perceptions of the impacts of the 2006 Expo and the more general impacts of Hang Zhou's Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) policies. As in other Chinese cities, these policies are primarily determined by the Municipal Government with comparatively little reference to residents. The researcher has found very little prior research into the subject of resident perceptions of MICE, even though, as described in the thesis, there has been increasing competition between cities as each seeks to build conference centres and attract business for those centres. Much of the literature reviewed was based on research into western cases, and in the final chapter reference is made to potential differences between China and the locations of this other research. After a literature review, the author undertook a qualitative study by conducting interviews with 40 respondents to both elicit their views and determine items for a subsequent quantitative study based on self completed questionnaires. After 5 months, a sample of just over 400 usable responses had been collected. The design of the questionnaire permitted discriminant analysis to be used, and thus in addition to the use of t-tests and ANOVA, factor, cluster, regression and path analysis were all used. Given the lack of previous research within China, the main focus of the research was descriptive and exploratory in nature, but the initial results permitted the development of a potential set of causal relationships that are summarised in the main text as Figure 4.3. This permitted a series of four propositions to be examined. It is to be noted that the term ‗proposition' is used rather than ‗hypothesis'. The latter term implies quantifiable relationships are thought to exist and that can be tested. The literature review reveals a deficiency generally about residents' perceptions of MICE and very specifically almost nothing about the Chinese situation, so at this stage it is proposed that a relationship between residents and MICE, but no specific hypothesis of quantifiable relationships exist to be tested. These were: Proposition One Socio-demographic variables impact on perceptions of MICE at the city and personal level, and on evaluations of Hang Zhou's MICE policy. In this respect, generally, it was found that socio- ii demographics were not discriminating variables, and only employment status and a past history of MICE attendance had some role of significance. Proposition Two There will be differences between residents' perceptions of the impacts of MICE policies when asked to consider (a) impacts in Hang Zhou generally, and (b) impacts on personal daily life. This was found to be generally true, and generally respondents were supportive of MICE policies that generated benefits for the city as a whole even when they were either not affected personally, or those personal impacts such as traffic congestion, were negative. Proposition Three There will exist differences in perceptions that can be caught in psychometric measurements that will enable different clusters to be discerned, whereby some will be supportive of MICE policies and others less so - such differences being determined by the evaluations of social and environmental costs as against economic gains. In short, there is an inherent tension between the economic, social and environmental within the current state of Hang Zhou as a developing city in a developing nation. This proved to be the case. Proposition Four A history of past attendance at MICE will be a variable that shapes support for MICE development and evaluations of the MICE policy. This was partially supported. While distinct factors, clusters and the role of past attendance were found, the overall model proposed in chapter four, whereby a mix of civic advantages and personal impacts were thought to generate evaluations of MICE policies, was not wholly supported by path analysis. Goodness of fit measures failed to achieve figures of 0.9, although individual components of the model did achieve this. Reasons for this were thought to exist in the developmental nature of the MICE industry in Hang Zhou, and possibly in China as a whole, and these considerations are discussed in the final chapter

    Large-scale patterns in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in very large aspect ratio cells

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    Large-scale patterns, which are well-known from the spiral defect chaos regime of thermal convection at Rayleigh numbers Ra 105. They are uncovered when the turbulent fields are averaged in time and turbulent fluctuations are thus removed. We apply the Boussinesq closure to calculate turbulent viscosities and diffusivities, respectively. The resulting turbulent Rayleigh number Ra_, that describes the convection of the mean patterns, is indeed in the spiral defect chaos range. Interestingly, the turbulent Prandtl numbers are smaller than one with 0:2 _ Pr_ _ 0:4 for Prandtl numbers 0:7 _ Pr _ 10. Finally, we demonstrate that these mean flow patterns are robust to an additional finite-amplitude side wall-forcing when the level of turbulent fluctuations in the flow is sufficiently high

    Reynolds number effect on 3D turbulent offset jet reattaching to a free surface

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    Experimental study was carried out to investigate the effect of Reynolds number on 3D offset jet reattaching to above free surface. Sharp edged square nozzle was used to produce the jets, and the measurements were performed at the following six different Reynolds numbers: 2300, 3700, 5100, 7900, 10300 and 11900. Detailed velocity measurements were made in the symmetry plane. From the PIV data, the mean velocity and turbulence statistics were obtained to study the effects of Reynolds number on the salient features of the jet flow. Preliminary results on streamwise mean velocity decay along the nozzle centerline, contours of streamwise mean velocity and Reynolds shear stress are presented herein

    The Benefits of Being Economics Professor A (and not Z)

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    Alphabetic name ordering on multi-authored academic papers, which is the convention in the economics discipline and various other disciplines, is to the advantage of people whose last name initials are placed early in the alphabet. As it turns out, Professor A, who has been a first author more often than Professor Z, will have published more articles and experienced afaster growth rate over the course of her career as a result of reputation and visibility. Moreover, authors know that name ordering matters and indeed take ordering seriously: Several characteristics of an author group composition determine the decision to deviate from the default alphabetic name order to a significant extent.performance measurement, incentives, economists, name ordering

    <i>Entrenchment, wealth, power, and the constitution of democratic societies</i> by Paul Starr

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    Entrenchment, Wealth, Power, and the Constitution of Democratic Societies, by Paul Starr, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2019. 280 pages, hardcover.Why should we, as Management scholars and educators, care about a book on political diagnosis? The answer is twofold. First, the calibre of the author (Paul Starr), an awardee of both Bancroft and Pulitzer Prizes, a former policy advisor to the Clinton administration, and the author of The Transformation of American Medicine (1982), a book with a profound impact on American policy circles. Second, the core concept (entrenchment) of the book, and its potential to advance the process of institutional development, and the ways in which we can reform and change our institutions to better meet the current and pressing needs of the many, rather than preserve the unequal privileges of a few. In light of the geopolitical, social, and environmental pressures we see currently rising across the world (George, Howard-Grenville, Joshi &amp; Tihanyi, 2016; Howard-Grenville, Buckle, Hoskins &amp; George, 2014) there is no better time to examine whether and how we can address some of these grand challenges by reforming and improving our institutions

    M.S. Kutorga and V.M. Vedrov: Conflict of Teacher and Student

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    В статье рассматривается конфликт между М.С. Куторгой и его учеником В.М. Ведровым. Исследуются причины конфликта, а также то влияние, которое он оказал на дальнейшую научную карьеру ученика. This article discusses the conflict between M.S. Kutorga and his student V.M. Vedrov. The author investigates the causes of the conflict and its impact on academic career V.M. Vedrov

    Ultra-fast escape of a deformable jet-propelled body

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    In this work a cephalopod-like deformable body that fills an internal cavity with fluid and expels it to propel an escape manoeuvre, while undergoing a drastic external shape change through shrinking, is shown to employ viscous as well as mainly inviscid hydrodynamic mechanisms to power an impressively fast start. First, we show that recovery of added-mass energy enables a shrinking rocket in a dense inviscid flow to achieve greater escape speed than an identical rocket in a vacuum. Next, we extend the shrinking body results of Weymouth &amp; Triantafyllou (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 702, 2012, pp. 470–487) to three-dimensional bodies and show that three hydrodynamic mechanisms must be combined to achieve rapid escape performance in a viscous fluid: added-mass energy recovery; flow separation elimination; and an optimized energy storage and recovery. In particular, we show that the mechanism of separation elimination achieved through rapid body shrinking, coordinated with the mechanism of recovering the initially imparted added-mass energy, is critical to achieving a high escape speed. Hence a flexible, collapsing body can be vastly superior to a rigid-shell jet-propelled body
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