The previous studies on the factors affecting trade margins emphasize the importance of exogenous trade costs; however, the role of product innovation has not been thoroughly investigated. Product innovation activities of a firm directly determine how efficiently its product matches the target consumers’ preferences and in turn significantly affects a country's trade growth patter. Therefore, w...

Microneedles, before being used for biomedical applications, have to satisfy biological and technical specifications, in particular they must guarantee a sufficient strength during exercise. Although studies on the mechanical characterization on single microneedles are reported in literature, microneedles must be arranged in matrices to be used in real biomedical applications. For these reasons...

We present a model of participation in large elections in which the formation of voter groups is endogenous. Partisan citizens decide whether to become leaders (activists) and try to persuade impressionable citizens to vote for the leaders’ preferred party. In the (unique) pure strategy equilibrium, the number of leaders favoring each party depends on the cost of activism and the importance of ...

This paper presents a detailed structural reliability procedure in order to achieve an acceptable safety margin for template type offshore platforms located in the Persian Gulf. Probability of failure in this study is calculated by considering the cumulative effects of all levels of wave loading during the lifetime of the structure and uncertainties associated with soil, material properties, co...

Introduction: The restoration material commonly used as core material for pulpless posterior teeth is mostly amalgam due to its high strength and low cost and it can be used with or without pin. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of post material on stress distribution in mandibular second premolar tooth by finite element analysis. Method: The stress distribution was analyzed i...

South China has been considered as part of the Rodinian supercontinent during Neoproterozoic time, although its paleogeographic position within this supercontinent is still a matter of debate. The Wangjiangshan and Bijigou complexes along the northern margin of South China are among the largest mafic intrusions in China. New SHRIMP zircon U-Pb results indicate that these two intrusions have cry...