Gao and Sonin (1994) have proposed a method for rapid prototyping and microfabrication by precise deposition and solidification of molten microdrops. Objects can be fabricated by a drop-on-demand, computer-controlled droplet generator. To understand the fundamentals of droplet deposition and solidification, experiments have been conducted using microcrystalline wax droplets (Schiaffino and Soni...

A brief history of Saxifragales. — The composition of Saxifragales as revealed in recent analyses is one of the major surprises of molecular phylogenetic studies of angiosperms (e.g., Chase & al., 1993; Morgan & Soltis, 1993; D. Soltis & al., 1997a, 2000; Qiu & al., 1998; Hoot & al., 1999; P. Soltis & al., 1999; Savolainen & al., 2000a, b; reviewed in D. Soltis & al., 2005). The order (APG II, ...

The focus of this article is to clarify the meaning of international competitiveness at the country level within in the context of Porter’s (1990a) thesis that countries, like companies, compete in international markets for their fair share of the world markets. At a country level, there are two schools of thought on country competitiveness: the economic school, which rejects Porter’s notion of...

Turnarounds have been a subject of fascination for business executives and a frequent source of enthusiasm for investors (Furman & McGahan, 2002). The phenomenon is of wide interest as many organizations go through major performance declines at some point during their evolution and have to deal with the issue of how to get back to leadership positions (Barker & Barr, 2002). I use the word ‘turn...

High resolution spectra of 5 candidate metal-weak thick-disc stars suggested by Beers & Sommer-Larsen (1995) are analyzed to determine their chemical abundances. The low abundance of all the objects has been confirmed with metallicity reaching [Fe/H]= −2.9. However, for three objects, the astrometric data from the Hipparcos catalogue suggests they are true halo members. The remaining two, for w...

Improved competitiveness, as we all know, is the path to economic nirvana. Plainly, it is a sought after property of any economy: the term trips frequently off the lips of politicians and commentators on economic and business matters. As cities increasingly engage in competition with one another at different levels, the determinants of competitive advantage are coming under intense scrutiny. Ma...

Trigonometric parallax observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Fine Guidance Sensor #3 (HST FGS) of seven Hyades Cluster members in six fields of view have been analyzed along with their proper motions to determine the distance to the cluster. Knowledge of the Cluster’s convergent point and mean proper motion are critical to the derivation of the distance to the center of the cluste...

One of the most common ways of representing classes of equivalent Bayesian networks is the use of essential graphs. These chain graphs are also known in the literature as completed patterns or completed pdags. The name essential graph was proposed by Andersson, Madigan and Perlman (1997a) who also gave a graphical characterization of essential graphs. In this contribution an alternative charact...

M has been said and written about the decline of management science education in MBA programs. The results of a recent INFORMS survey of professors who teach OR/MS in business schools indicate that “only 13 percent felt the role [of management science] is greater now than five years ago. Looking five years ahead only 21 percent expect the role to be greater five years in the future” [INFORMS 19...

Illicit drug use is widespread across most industrialised countries. The prevalence of illicit use is probably measured best in the United States: at least 14 million people, or 6% of the population, use illicit drugs every month (Office of National Drug Control Policy [ONDCP], 1999). Nor is this pattern of use confined to the U.S. In Britain, for example, around 2 million people use illicit dr...