What is a ‘molecular ruler’? The lengths of many linear polymers in biology are specified with remarkably accuracy, indicating they have very similar or the same numbers of subunits. Examples include bacteriophage tails, bacterial flagellum hooks, bacterial ‘injectisome’ needles, and the thin and thick filaments of striated muscles. Such exact assembly requires explanation, because the same sub...

Tax extraction in Qing China was low relative to Western Europe. It is not obvious why: China was much more absolutist and had stronger rights over property and people. Why did the Chinese not convert their absolute power into revenue? We propose a model, supported by historical evidence, which suggests that i) the center could not ask its tax collecting agents to levy high taxes because it wou...

Periodic binary sequences with the \trinomial property" are considered. A conjecture of Golomb and Gong concerning these sequences is disproved.

Article history: Received 24 October 2008 Received in revised form 2 July 2009 Accepted 15 July 2009 Available online 17 July 2009 Communicated by F.Y.L. Chin

A carpenter’s ruler is a ruler divided into pieces of different lengths which are hinged where the pieces meet, which makes it possible to fold the ruler. The carpenter’s ruler folding problem, originally posed by Hopcroft, Joseph and Whitesides, is to determine the smallest case (or interval on the line) into which the ruler fits when folded. The problem is known to be NP-complete. The best pr...

See Teresa dc Lauretis, 'Aesthetic and Feminist Theory: Rethinking Women's Cinema', New German Critique 34, Winter 1985, pp 154-175. Madame X, a harsh, pitiless beauty, the cruel, uncrowned ruler of the China Seas, launched an appeal to all women willing to exchange an everyday existence of almost unbearable boredom, though safe and easy, for a world of uncertainty and danger, but also full of ...

The article examines one of the most striking speeches Demosthenes corps, which was often quoted by ancient authors: LIX “Against Neaira,” conventionally believed to be authored Apollodorus. Although this speech, as well trial where it presented, has repeatedly become subject historiographic commentary and discussion, not a single specialized work been devoted in Russian. against Neaira her par...

The aims of this study were to compare the maximum range of protrusion determined with a ruler with measurements made using a George Gauge (GG) and to validate the methods of measurement (ruler and GG) of the advancement established by mandibular protruding devices (MPDs), using cephalograms as the gold standard. The study comprised 77 patients (63 males, 14 females, mean age 54 years, range 31...

A softcopy quality ruler method was implemented for the International Imaging Industry Association (I3A) Camera Phone Image Quality (CPIQ) Initiative. This work extends ISO 20462 Part 3 by virtue of creating reference digital images of known subjective image quality, complimenting the hardcopy Standard Reference Stimuli (SRS). The softcopy ruler method was developed using images from a Canon EO...

We consider Golomb rulers and their construction. Common rulers feature marks at every unit measure, distances can often be measured with numerous pairs of marks. On Golomb rulers, for every distance there are at most two marks measuring it. The construction of optimal—with respect to shortest length for given number of marks or maximum number of marks for given length—is nontrivial, various pr...