Neural encoding of competitive effort in the anterior cingulate cortex.

PubMed

Hillman, Kristin L; Bilkey, David K

2012-09-01

In social environments, animals often compete to obtain limited resources. Strategically electing to work against another animal represents a cost-benefit decision. Is the resource worth an investment of competitive effort? The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been implicated in cost-benefit decision-making, but its role in competitive effort has not been examined. We recorded ACC neurons in freely moving rats as they performed a competitive foraging choice task. When at least one of the two choice options demanded competitive effort, the majority of ACC neurons exhibited heightened and differential firing between the goal trajectories. Inter- and intrasession manipulations revealed that differential firing was not attributable to effort or reward in isolation; instead ACC encoding patterns appeared to indicate net utility assessments of available choice options. Our findings suggest that the ACC is important for encoding competitive effort, a cost-benefit domain that has received little neural-level investigation despite its predominance in nature.

Sialic Acid Catabolism Confers a Competitive Advantage to Pathogenic Vibrio cholerae in the Mouse Intestine▿

PubMed Central

Almagro-Moreno, Salvador; Boyd, E. Fidelma

2009-01-01

Sialic acids comprise a family of nine-carbon ketosugars that are ubiquitous on mammalian mucous membranes. However, sialic acids have a limited distribution among Bacteria and are confined mainly to pathogenic and commensal species. Vibrio pathogenicity island 2 (VPI-2), a 57-kb region found exclusively among pathogenic strains of Vibrio cholerae, contains a cluster of genes (nan-nag) putatively involved in the scavenging (nanH), transport (dctPQM), and catabolism (nanA, nanE, nanK, and nagA) of sialic acid. The capacity to utilize sialic acid as a carbon and energy source might confer an advantage to V. cholerae in the mucus-rich environment of the gut, where sialic acid availability is extensive. In this study, we show that V. cholerae can utilize sialic acid as a sole carbon source. We demonstrate that the genes involved in the utilization of sialic acid are located within the nan-nag region of VPI-2 by complementation of Escherichia coli mutants and gene knockouts in V. cholerae N16961. We show that nanH, dctP, nanA, and nanK are highly expressed in V. cholerae grown on sialic acid. By using the infant mouse model of infection, we show that V. cholerae ΔnanA strain SAM1776 is defective in early intestinal colonization stages. In addition, SAM1776 shows a decrease in the competitive index in colonization-competition assays comparing the mutant strain with both O1 El Tor and classical strains. Our data indicate an important relationship between the catabolism of sialic acid and bacterial pathogenesis, stressing the relevance of the utilization of the resources found in the host's environment. PMID:19564383

Sialic acid catabolism confers a competitive advantage to pathogenic vibrio cholerae in the mouse intestine.

PubMed

Almagro-Moreno, Salvador; Boyd, E Fidelma

2009-09-01

Sialic acids comprise a family of nine-carbon ketosugars that are ubiquitous on mammalian mucous membranes. However, sialic acids have a limited distribution among Bacteria and are confined mainly to pathogenic and commensal species. Vibrio pathogenicity island 2 (VPI-2), a 57-kb region found exclusively among pathogenic strains of Vibrio cholerae, contains a cluster of genes (nan-nag) putatively involved in the scavenging (nanH), transport (dctPQM), and catabolism (nanA, nanE, nanK, and nagA) of sialic acid. The capacity to utilize sialic acid as a carbon and energy source might confer an advantage to V. cholerae in the mucus-rich environment of the gut, where sialic acid availability is extensive. In this study, we show that V. cholerae can utilize sialic acid as a sole carbon source. We demonstrate that the genes involved in the utilization of sialic acid are located within the nan-nag region of VPI-2 by complementation of Escherichia coli mutants and gene knockouts in V. cholerae N16961. We show that nanH, dctP, nanA, and nanK are highly expressed in V. cholerae grown on sialic acid. By using the infant mouse model of infection, we show that V. cholerae DeltananA strain SAM1776 is defective in early intestinal colonization stages. In addition, SAM1776 shows a decrease in the competitive index in colonization-competition assays comparing the mutant strain with both O1 El Tor and classical strains. Our data indicate an important relationship between the catabolism of sialic acid and bacterial pathogenesis, stressing the relevance of the utilization of the resources found in the host's environment.

South Korean Male Adolescents' Internal and External Influences in Academic Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geesa, Rachel Louise

2014-01-01

South Korean adolescents' motivation for high academic achievement is strongly influenced by extraordinary parental support, pressures to achieve, and the practice of utilizing both public and private learning environments in South Korea. To remain competitive, educational leaders may benefit from observations of other countries' academic…

A multimethodology contractor assessment model for facilitating green innovation: the view of energy and environmental protection.

PubMed

Hsueh, Sung-Lin; Yan, Min-Ren

2013-01-01

The trends of the green supply chain are attributed to pressures from the environment and from customers. Green innovation is a practice for creating competitive advantage in sustainable development. To keep up with the changing business environment, the construction industry needs an appropriate assessment tool to examine the intrinsic and extrinsic effects regarding corporate competitive advantage. From the viewpoint of energy and environmental protection, this study combines four scientific methodologies to develop an assessment model for the green innovation of contractors. System dynamics can be used to estimate the future trends for the overall industrial structure and is useful in predicting competitive advantage in the industry. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and utility theory focus on the customer's attitude toward risk and are useful for comprehending changes in objective requirements in the environment. Fuzzy logic can simplify complicated intrinsic and extrinsic factors and express them with a number or ratio that is easy to understand. The proposed assessment model can be used as a reference to guide the government in examining the public constructions that qualified green contractors participate in. Additionally, the assessment model serves an indicator of relative competitiveness that can help the general contractor and subcontractor to evaluate themselves and further green innovations.

A Multimethodology Contractor Assessment Model for Facilitating Green Innovation: The View of Energy and Environmental Protection

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The trends of the green supply chain are attributed to pressures from the environment and from customers. Green innovation is a practice for creating competitive advantage in sustainable development. To keep up with the changing business environment, the construction industry needs an appropriate assessment tool to examine the intrinsic and extrinsic effects regarding corporate competitive advantage. From the viewpoint of energy and environmental protection, this study combines four scientific methodologies to develop an assessment model for the green innovation of contractors. System dynamics can be used to estimate the future trends for the overall industrial structure and is useful in predicting competitive advantage in the industry. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and utility theory focus on the customer's attitude toward risk and are useful for comprehending changes in objective requirements in the environment. Fuzzy logic can simplify complicated intrinsic and extrinsic factors and express them with a number or ratio that is easy to understand. The proposed assessment model can be used as a reference to guide the government in examining the public constructions that qualified green contractors participate in. Additionally, the assessment model serves an indicator of relative competitiveness that can help the general contractor and subcontractor to evaluate themselves and further green innovations. PMID:24311979

The Impact of the Enterprise Resources Planning Systems on the Innovative Capabilities of the Organization: A Secondary Analysis of the Sectoral E-Business Watch Longitudinal Study 2002-2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erturk, Alper

2012-01-01

Companies constantly adapt to new business environments in order to be successful and stay relevant. Innovation is a vital source for a company to be competitive in the business environment. Innovations enable companies to develop and utilize new strategies, tools, and tactics as well as new products and services. Enterprise resource planning…

Electric utility market research monograph series, Monograph 3: Market segmentation research: Volume 1 (Concept) and Volume 2 (Application)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chakravarti, D.; Hendrix, P.E.; Wilkie, W.L.

1987-01-01

Maturing markets and the accompanying increase in competition, sophistication of customers, and differentiation of products and services have forced companies to focus their marketing efforts on segments in which they can prosper. The experience in these companies has revealed that market segmentation, although simple in concept, is not so easily implemented. It is reasonable to anticipate substantial benefits from additional market segmentation within each of the classes traditionally distinguished in the industry - residential, commercial, and industrial. Segmentation is also likely to prove useful for utilities facing quite different marketing environments, e.g., in terms of demand patterns (number of customers,more » winter- and summer-peaking, etc.), capacity, and degree of regulatory and competitive pressures. Within utilities, those charged with developing and implementing segmentation strategies face some difficult issues. The primary objective of this monograph is to provide some answers to these questions. This monograph is intended to provide utility researchers with a guide to the design and execution of market segmentation research in utility markets. Several composite cases, drawn from actual studies conducted by electric utilities, are used to illustrate the discussion.« less

Spare parts management for nuclear power generation facilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scala, Natalie Michele

With deregulation, utilities in the power sector face a much more urgent imperative to emphasize cost efficiencies as compared to the days of regulation. One major opportunity for cost savings is through reductions in spare parts inventories. Most utilities are accustomed to carrying large volumes of expensive, relatively slow-moving parts because of a high degree of risk-averseness. This attitude towards risk is rooted in the days of regulation. Under regulation, companies recovered capital inventory costs by incorporating them into the base rate charged to their customers. In a deregulated environment, cost recovery is no longer guaranteed. Companies must therefore reexamine their risk profile and develop policies for spare parts inventory that are appropriate for a competitive business environment. This research studies the spare parts inventory management problem in the context of electric utilities, with a focus on nuclear power. It addresses three issues related to this problem: criticality, risk, and policy. With respect to criticality and risk, a methodology is presented that incorporates the use of influence diagrams and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). A new method is developed for group aggregation in the AHP when Saaty and Vargas' (2007) dispersion test fails and decision makers are unwilling or unable to revise their judgments. With respect to policy, a quantitative model that ranks the importance of keeping a part in inventory and recommends a corresponding stocking policy through the use of numerical simulation is developed. This methodology and its corresponding models will enable utilities that have transitioned from a regulated to a deregulated environment become more competitive in their operations while maintaining safety and reliability standards. Furthermore, the methodology developed is general enough so that other utility plants, especially those in the nuclear sector, will be able to use this approach. In addition to regulated utilities, other industries, such as aerospace, and the military can also benefit from extensions to these models, as risk profiles and subsequent policies can be adjusted to align with the business environment in which each industry or company operates.

Commercial opportunities utilizing the International Space Station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kearney, Michael E.; Mongan, Phil; Overmyer, Carolyn M.; Jackson, Kenneth

1998-01-01

The International Space Station (ISS) has the unique capability of providing a low-g environment for both short- and long-duration experimentation. This environment can provide a unique and competitive research capability to industry; but until recently, utilization of this environment by the private sector has been limited if not totally unavailable. NASA has recently expressed an interest in the commercial development of space and this is now an integral part of the Agency's enabling legislation through the Space Act. NASA's objective is to foster the use of the space environment for the development of commercial products and processes. Through alliances and agreements with several commercial companies and universities, SPACEHAB, Inc., has built a comprehensive package of services designed to provide low-cost reliable access to space for experimenters. These services provide opportunities to support engineering test beds for materials exposure analysis, to mitigate structural failures as observed on the Hubble Space Telescope; materials processing, remote sensing; space environment definition; and electronic experiments. The intent of this paper is to identify commercial opportunities for utilizing the International Space Station and provide examples of several facilities currently being designed and manufactured by commercial companies with the purpose of providing access to the space environment for commercial users.

How animals drink and swim in fluids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jung, Sunghwan

2011-10-01

Fluids are essential for most living organisms to maintain a healthy body and also serve as a medium in which they locomote. The fluid bulk or interfaces actively interact with biological structures, which produces highly nonlinear, interesting, and complicated dynamical problems. We studied the lapping of cats and the swimming of Paramecia in various fluidic environments. The problem of the cat drinking can be simplified as the competition between inertia and gravity whereas the problem of Paramecium swimming in viscous fluids results from the competition between viscous drag and thrust. The underlying mechanisms are discussed and understood through laboratory experiments utilizing high-speed photography.

The Drivers of ERP Implementation and Its Impact on Organizational Capabilities and Performance and Customer Value

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hwang, Woosang

2011-01-01

In a constantly changing global business environment, firms have no other choice but to continually expand their capabilities and sharpen their competitive edge. Toward this goal, an increasing number of organizations are turning to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. An ERP system utilizes various kinds of information processing…

The tools of competition: Differentiation, segmentation and the microprocessor

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Piepmeier, J.M.; Jermain, D.O.; Egnor, T.L.

1993-11-01

The microprocessor enables electric utilities to recover product differentiation and market segmentation tools that they relinquished decades ago. These tools present a [open quotes]double-edged[close quotes] opportunity to the industry. Product differentiation and market segmentation are deeply and permanently embedded in the corporate strategy and culture of virtually every successful firm. Most electric utilities, however, continue to promote a generic product to an undifferentiated captive audience. This approach was also common in the pre-Yeltsin USSR, where advertisements simply read, Buy Beer, or Eat Potatoes'. Electric utilities relinquished the differentiation/segmentation function in the far distant past to the suppliers of end-use energymore » appliances such as GE and Carrier. By default they assigned themselves the role of commodity supplier. Historically, this role has been protected in the marketplace and insulated from competition by two strong barriers: economies of scale and status as a legally franchised monopoly in a well-defined geographic territory. These two barriers do not exist independently; the second depends on the first. When scale economies cease and then reverse, the industry's legally protected position in the marketplace begins to erode. The lack of product differentiation and market segmentation, which was inconsequential before, now becomes a serious handicap: These same relinquished tools seem to be essential for success in a competitive environment.« less

Competition and deregulation in the electric industry. A study of organizational change: The New York State Public Service Commission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashley, Deborah J. Cordaro

2000-11-01

Public organizations are formed in response to societal needs. They collect taxes, educate children, enforce laws and provide protection to the environment, the nation and consumers. One such organization is the New York State Public Service Commission. In 1907, legislation was passed to form the New York State Public Service Commission the first regulatory body of its kind in the United States. Its mission was to provide safe, reliable and reasonably priced electricity. Subsequently, this became the model that was implemented in every state in the nation. The past decade heralds an era of competition and a lessening of regulatory control. The telephone, natural gas and airline industries are in various stages of deregulation, and the electric industry is beginning down this path as well. In an environment such as this, are regulatory organizations necessary, and if they are, how can they organize to meet the new societal requirements? The case of the New York State Public Service Commission at this point in time offers a real time study of a regulatory body immersed in an environment that is calling for competition and an end to big government. Utilizing case studies of industries that have deregulated, or are in the process of deregulating, indicates a future societal need for regulations. This result does not lead to a conclusion that organizational change is unnecessary. This Dissertation will lay out the current organizational structure of the Public Service Commission, give an overview of the environmental signals, describe the mission/core values, and illustrate general political and employee factors that are indigenous to public service. Utilizing both classic and current organizational theory, an evaluation will be made of the Commission's need for change, their ability to change, and obstacles they may encounter.

Influences of market competition on dental care utilization under the global budget payment system.

PubMed

Tsai, Wen-Chen; Kung, Pei-Tseng; Chang, Wei-Chieh

2007-12-01

The degrees of market competition usually influence providers' behaviors. This study investigated the influence of medical market competition on the utilization of dental care under the global budget payment system. This study also examined the relative factors that influence the utilization of dental care. This study used the healthcare sub-regions (HCSRs) in the healthcare net as the observation units. The dataset was the National Health Insurance dental care claim data from 1999 to 2002. The degree of market competition of dental care was measured by the Herfindahl Index (HI). The influences of medical market competition on the utilization of dental care were analyzed by multiple linear regression analysis. When the market had a higher degree of competition, people had a higher number of dental utilizations after controlling for the other variables. When market competition increased by 1%, annual expenditures and frequencies of dental care as well as frequencies of tooth-filling per person increased by 0.4%. Thirty-three percent of dental expenditures could be explained by increases in the degree of market competition. Females or highly educated people had a positive correlation with dental utilization. However, the agricultural population negatively correlated with dental utilization. Average household income had no significant relationship with the frequency of dental care but had a significant negative association with dental expenditures when dental care was covered by health insurance. After the global budget payment system for dental care was implemented, increases in dental care market competition led to the increase in utilization of dental care services.

Children Left Behind: Self-Confidence of Pupils in Competitive Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Federicová, Miroslava; Pertold, Filip; Smith, Michael L.

2018-01-01

To sort pupils at the end of primary school, some early-tracking systems apply a mechanism that unwittingly divides classes into two groups: students preparing for exams to enter better schools and everyone else, who decide not to compete for selective schools. Utilizing TIMSS data and a follow-up study in the Czech Republic, we show that this…

Successful industry-university graduate-level research partnerships at the Pennsylvania State University

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Feltus, M.A.

1996-12-31

Previously, nuclear utilities have been considered {open_quotes}deep pockets{close_quotes} for university research; however, in the current cost-cutting competitive environment, most utilities have drastically reduced or eliminated research. Any collaboration with universities requires that any research effort have a focused objective, short-term duration, and tangible payback. Furthermore, the research must concentrate on solving operating problems, rather than on long-term general concerns. Although practical studies may seem mundane, untheoretical, and uninteresting for most academics, such pragmatic topics can provide interesting research for students and helpful results for the utilities. This paper provides examples of the author`s research funded by utilities. Each project hasmore » a specific objective involving a particular utility need or computer code analysis tool.« less

Development of the Competitive Work Environment Scale: A Multidimensional Climate Construct

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher, Thomas D.; Nusbaum, David N.

2010-01-01

Recent research suggests that competitive work environments may influence individual's attitudes, behaviors, stress, and performance. Unfortunately, adequate measures of competitive environments are lacking. This article traces the development of a new multidimensional competitive work environment scale. An initial 59-item pool covering five…

DSM and electric utility competitiveness: An Illinois perspective

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jackson, P.W.

1994-12-31

A predominant theme in the current electric utility industry literature is that competitive forces have emerged and may become more prominent. The wholesale bulk power market is alreadly competitive, as non-utility energy service providers already have had a significant impact on that market; this trend was accelerated by the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Although competition at the retail level is much less pervasive, electric utility customers increasingly have greater choice in selecting energy services. These choices may include, depending on the customer, the ability to self-generate, switch fuels, move to a new location, or rely more heavily on demand-sidemore » management as a means of controlling electric energy use. This paper explores the subject of how demand-side management (DSM) programs, which are often developed by a utility to satisfy resource requirements as a part of its least-cost planning process, can affect the utility`s ability to compete in the energy services marketplace. In this context, the term `DSM` is used in this paper to refer to those demand-side services and programs which provide resources to the utility`s system. Depending on one`s perspective, DSM programs (so defined) can be viewed either as an enhancement to the competitive position of a utility by enabling it to provide its customers with a broader menu of energy services, simultaneously satisfying the objectives of the utility as well as those of the customers, or as a detractor to a utility`s ability to compete. In the latter case, the concern is with respect to the potential for adverse rate impacts on customers who are not participants in DSM programs. The paper consists of an identification of the pros and cons of DSM as a competitive strategy, the tradeoff which can occur between the cost impacts and rate impacts of DSM, and an examination of alternative strategies for maximizing the utilization of DSM both as a resource and as a competitive strategy.« less

Photovoltaics as a terrestrial energy source. Volume 1: An introduction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, J. L.

1980-01-01

Photovoltaic (PV) systems were examined their potential for terrestrial application and future development. Photovoltaic technology, existing and potential photovoltaic applications, and the National Photovoltaics Program are reviewed. The competitive environment for this electrical source, affected by the presence or absence of utility supplied power is evaluated in term of systems prices. The roles of technological breakthroughs, directed research and technology development, learning curves, and commercial demonstrations in the National Program are discussed. The potential for photovoltaics to displace oil consumption is examined, as are the potential benefits of employing PV in either central-station or non-utility owned, small, distributed systems.

Assessing corporate restructurings in the electric utility industry: A framework

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Malko, J.R.

1996-12-31

Corporate restructurings of electric utilities in the United States have become an important and controversial issue during the 1980s. Regulators and electric utility executives have different perspectives concerning corporate restructurings associated with diversification, mergers, and functional separation of generation, transmission, and distribution. Regulators attempt to regulate electric utilities effectively in order to assure that adequate electricity services are provided at reasonable cost and to protect the public interest which includes considering choices and risks to customers. Regulators are considering and developing new regulatory approaches in order to address corporate restructurings and balance regulation and competitive pressures. Electric utility executives typicallymore » view corporate restructurings as a potential partial solution to financial challenges and problems and are analyzing corporate restructuring activities within the framework of the corporate strategic planning process. Executives attempt to find new sources of economic value and consider risks and potential returns to investors in an increasingly competitive environment. The parent holding company is generally used as the basic corporate form for restructuring activities in the electric utility industry. However, the wholly-owned utility subsidiary structure remains in use for some restructurings. The primary purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to assess corporate restructurings in the electric utility industry from a public policy perspective. This paper is organized in the following manner. First, different types of corporate restructurings in the electric utility industry are examined. Second, reasons for corporate restructuring activities are represented. Third, a framework for assessing corporate restructuring activities is proposed. Fourth, the application of the framework is discussed.« less

Franchise competition in the electric utility industry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vince, C.A.; Fogel, J.C.

Franchise competition is - and should be - an integral part of enhanced competition. It serves the traditional goal of encouraging lower costs through the threat of takeover or purchase. However, the issue of utility recovery for stranded costs stands as a major unresolved question affecting customers` ability to partake of this central aspect of competition.

Electric power competition & the economic doctrine of contestable markets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Owan, R.E.

This paper addresses electric power competition and ascribes a prototypical market structure for the utility industry. The advent of {open_quotes}limited{close_quotes} competition in the electric utility industry has created interesting market challenges for incumbent companies and those eager to enter the fray. Competition is viewed as limited in the sense that not all aspects of the utility industry have been deregulated. While transmission and distribution remain protected market segments, the metamorphosis is most evident in the generation component of the utility industry. The changes have been orchestrated by favorable actions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Public Utilities Regulatorymore » Policies Act (PURPA). Because of the industry changes, the classical view of the electric utility company as a vertical monopoly is arguable. Welfare considerations not withstanding, part of the rationale for the deregulation of power generation is that the technology and techniques are sufficiently common (i.e. not proprietary) as to allow others to provide the same product or service at competitive prices.« less

New tactics and technologies to meet the competitive utility environment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Audin, L.

A new age is dawning for lower-cost energy use and supply. The deregulation of the electric industry is creating new pricing options that will change how one evaluates cost-cutting energy alternatives. As competition begins, smart users will grasp these opportunities and press for greater innovation on the part of marketers. Energy users can best navigate these choices by: understanding the concepts inherent in deregulation (such as transmission constrains); influencing the deregulation process (which does not end when markets first open); learning to use new analytical tools (such as load profile analysis); applying new technologies (e.g., wireless automatic metering); and beingmore » as creative as possible (because marketers won`t be).« less

Ten-year experience in managing a capitated ophthalmology carve-out by an academic eye center.

PubMed

Olson, R J

1997-01-01

A 10-year experience of managing a capitated opthalmology carve-out by an academic health unit is presented. Lessons learned regarding pricing, utilization, and managing this contract are discussed. Handling the cost of education and remaining competitive is presented as a not-insurmountable hurdle. Academic health units can compete in today's environment; however, the learning curve is steep and the problems many.

The effects of electric power industry restructuring on the safety of nuclear power plants in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Butler, Thomas S.

Throughout the United States the electric utility industry is restructuring in response to federal legislation mandating deregulation. The electric utility industry has embarked upon an extraordinary experiment by restructuring in response to deregulation that has been advocated on the premise of improving economic efficiency by encouraging competition in as many sectors of the industry as possible. However, unlike the telephone, trucking, and airline industries, the potential effects of electric deregulation reach far beyond simple energy economics. This dissertation presents the potential safety risks involved with the deregulation of the electric power industry in the United States and abroad. The pressures of a competitive environment on utilities with nuclear power plants in their portfolio to lower operation and maintenance costs could squeeze them to resort to some risky cost-cutting measures. These include deferring maintenance, reducing training, downsizing staff, excessive reductions in refueling down time, and increasing the use of on-line maintenance. The results of this study indicate statistically significant differences at the .01 level between the safety of pressurized water reactor nuclear power plants and boiling water reactor nuclear power plants. Boiling water reactors exhibited significantly more problems than did pressurized water reactors.

The Janus face of Darwinian competition

PubMed Central

Hintze, Arend; Phillips, Nathaniel; Hertwig, Ralph

2015-01-01

Without competition, organisms would not evolve any meaningful physical or cognitive abilities. Competition can thus be understood as the driving force behind Darwinian evolution. But does this imply that more competitive environments necessarily evolve organisms with more sophisticated cognitive abilities than do less competitive environments? Or is there a tipping point at which competition does more harm than good? We examine the evolution of decision strategies among virtual agents performing a repetitive sampling task in three distinct environments. The environments differ in the degree to which the actions of a competitor can affect the fitness of the sampling agent, and in the variance of the sample. Under weak competition, agents evolve decision strategies that sample often and make accurate decisions, which not only improve their own fitness, but are good for the entire population. Under extreme competition, however, the dark side of the Janus face of Darwinian competition emerges: Agents are forced to sacrifice accuracy for speed and are prevented from sampling as often as higher variance in the environment would require. Modest competition is therefore a good driver for the evolution of cognitive abilities and of the population as a whole, whereas too much competition is devastating. PMID:26354182

The Janus face of Darwinian competition.

PubMed

Hintze, Arend; Phillips, Nathaniel; Hertwig, Ralph

2015-09-10

Without competition, organisms would not evolve any meaningful physical or cognitive abilities. Competition can thus be understood as the driving force behind Darwinian evolution. But does this imply that more competitive environments necessarily evolve organisms with more sophisticated cognitive abilities than do less competitive environments? Or is there a tipping point at which competition does more harm than good? We examine the evolution of decision strategies among virtual agents performing a repetitive sampling task in three distinct environments. The environments differ in the degree to which the actions of a competitor can affect the fitness of the sampling agent, and in the variance of the sample. Under weak competition, agents evolve decision strategies that sample often and make accurate decisions, which not only improve their own fitness, but are good for the entire population. Under extreme competition, however, the dark side of the Janus face of Darwinian competition emerges: Agents are forced to sacrifice accuracy for speed and are prevented from sampling as often as higher variance in the environment would require. Modest competition is therefore a good driver for the evolution of cognitive abilities and of the population as a whole, whereas too much competition is devastating.

More Than the Win: The Relation between Appetitive Competition Motivation, Socialization, and Gender Role Orientation in Women's Football.

PubMed

Meyer-Parlapanis, Danie; Siefert, Sabrina; Weierstall, Roland

2017-01-01

The ability to produce peak performance plays a decisive role in the success of athletes in competitive contest situations. Levels of appetitive competition motivation (ACM), i.e., the desire to defeat an opponent independent of secondary reinforcing factors, were assessed in professional female football/soccer players in the premier and regional leagues, using club level as the measurement of sport success. Furthermore, the influence of social environments predominantly encouraging masculine and competitive play behavior and the players' perceptions of their own gender role orientations were investigated. Ninety female football players from the German premier league (44) and regional leagues (46) participated (age: M = 24, SD = 5 years). Questionnaires ascertaining ACM and self-perceptions of gender via gender-role stereotypes, childhood play behavior and style of upbringing were utilized. Premier league athletes showed a significantly greater inclination toward direct sporting confrontations. Almost 50% of the variance in ACM between the premier and regional league athletes was determined by modern upbringing style and the development of gender roles not corresponding to classic female gender stereotypes. The results emphasize the significance of ACM as an important facet in competitive sports and illustrate the influence of socialization on athletic performance.

Health maintenance organization environments in the 1980s and beyond

PubMed Central

Morrison, Ellen M.; Luft, Harold S.

1990-01-01

Throughout the past decade, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) were buffeted by dramatic regulatory and competitive changes. In this article, literature of the 1980s is reviewed to update our knowledge on the HMO industry and to suggest future research. The influence of intensified competition on these organizations and the determinants of market entry, expansion, and exit are examined. These organizations are now beginning to require copayments and deductibles and to offer point-of-service choice, while indemnity plans are developing sophisticated utilization management techniques. Given these significant structural changes, past distinctions among HMO, preferred provider organization and fee-for-service medicine must be replaced with a distinction between degree of provider choice and level of benefits. PMID:10113465

Efficiency, equity and the environment: Institutional challenges in the restructuring of the electric power industry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Haeri, M.H.

1998-07-01

In the electric power industry, fundamental changes are underway in Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand and, more recently, in Asia. Rooted in increased deregulation and competition, these changes are likely to radically alter the structure of the industry. Liberalization of electric power markets in the United Kingdom is, for the most part, complete. The generation market in the United States began opening to competition following the 1987 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). The Energy Policy Act of 1992 set the stage for a much more dramatic change in the industry. The most far-reaching provision of the Act was itsmore » electricity title, which opened access to the electric transmission grid. With legal barriers now removed, the traditionally sheltered US electric utility market is becoming increasingly open to entry and competition. A number of important legislative, regulatory and governmental policy initiatives are underway in the Philippines that will have a profound effect on the electric power industry. In Thailand, the National Energy Planning Organization (NEPO) has undertaken a thorough investigation of industry restructuring. This paper summarizes recent international developments in the deregulation and liberalization of electricity markets in the U.K., U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. It focuses on the relevance of these experiences to development underway in the Philippines and Thailand, and presents alternative possible structures likely to emerge in these countries, drawing heavily on the authors' recent experiences in Thailand and the Philippines. The impact of these changes on the business environment for power generation and marketing will be discussed in detail, as will the opportunities these changes create for investment among private power producers.« less

Electric deregulation: Defining and ensuring fair competition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kahn, A.E.

1998-04-01

Regulation has several important duties in the transition of the electricity industry to competition. But in fulfilling these responsibilities, regulators must refrain from policies pressed upon them by consumer representatives, on one side, and would-be rivals of utility companies, on the other, that would artificially handicap utilities and blunt the salutary forces of competition.

Utilization of Space Station for industrial thermophysical property measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Overfelt, Tony; Watkins, John

1996-03-01

The International Space Station represents the largest cooperative space project in history and will be industry's only reasonable access to the low-g environment for long duration R&D. Such access will provide unique and competitive capabilities to industry if private sector entities can commercially utilize the Space Station for their industrial research programs. The metal casting industry has identified the need for accurate thermophysical properties of molten alloys as a priority need. Research over the last decade has demonstrated that experimental techniques exist to containerlessly measure critical thermophysical and related properties of molten metals for improved process design. This paper describes the ``VULCAN'' concept, a proposed commercial instrument for thermophysical properties measurements on the Space Station. Finally, several issues regarding private sector utilization of the Space Station are also discussed.

Social effects on foraging behavior and success depend on local environmental conditions

PubMed Central

Marshall, Harry H; Carter, Alecia J; Ashford, Alexandra; Rowcliffe, J Marcus; Cowlishaw, Guy

2015-01-01

In social groups, individuals' dominance rank, social bonds, and kinship with other group members have been shown to influence their foraging behavior. However, there is growing evidence that the particular effects of these social traits may also depend on local environmental conditions. We investigated this by comparing the foraging behavior of wild chacma baboons, Papio ursinus, under natural conditions and in a field experiment where food was spatially clumped. Data were collected from 55 animals across two troops over a 5-month period, including over 900 agonistic foraging interactions and over 600 food patch visits in each condition. In both conditions, low-ranked individuals received more agonism, but this only translated into reduced foraging performances for low-ranked individuals in the high-competition experimental conditions. Our results suggest one possible reason for this pattern may be low-ranked individuals strategically investing social effort to negotiate foraging tolerance, but the rank-offsetting effect of this investment being overwhelmed in the higher-competition experimental environment. Our results also suggest that individuals may use imbalances in their social bonds to negotiate tolerance from others under a wider range of environmental conditions, but utilize the overall strength of their social bonds in more extreme environments where feeding competition is more intense. These findings highlight that behavioral tactics such as the strategic investment of social effort may allow foragers to mitigate the costs of low rank, but that the effectiveness of these tactics is likely to be limited in certain environments. PMID:25691973

Comprehensive Smart Grid Planning in a Regulated Utility Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, Matthew; Liao, Yuan; Du, Yan

2015-06-01

This paper presents the tools and exercises used during the Kentucky Smart Grid Roadmap Initiative in a collaborative electric grid planning process involving state regulators, public utilities, academic institutions, and private interest groups. The mandate of the initiative was to assess the existing condition of smart grid deployments in Kentucky, to enhance understanding of smart grid concepts by stakeholders, and to develop a roadmap for the deployment of smart grid technologies by the jurisdictional utilities of Kentucky. Through involvement of many important stakeholder groups, the resultant Smart Grid Deployment Roadmap proposes an aggressive yet achievable strategy and timetable designed to promote enhanced availability, security, efficiency, reliability, affordability, sustainability and safety of the electricity supply throughout the state while maintaining Kentucky's nationally competitive electricity rates. The models and methods developed for this exercise can be utilized as a systematic process for the planning of coordinated smart grid deployments.

Differences in Competitive Ability between Plants from Nonnative and Native Populations of a Tropical Invader Relates to Adaptive Responses in Abiotic and Biotic Environments

PubMed Central

Liao, Zhi-Yong; Zhang, Ru; Barclay, Gregor F.; Feng, Yu-Long

2013-01-01

The evolution of competitive ability of invasive plant species is generally studied in the context of adaptive responses to novel biotic environments (enemy release) in introduced ranges. However, invasive plants may also respond to novel abiotic environments. Here we studied differences in competitive ability between Chromolaena odorata plants of populations from nonnative versus native ranges, considering biogeographical differences in both biotic and abiotic environments. An intraspecific competition experiment was conducted at two nutrient levels in a common garden. In both low and high nutrient treatments, C. odorata plants from nonnative ranges showed consistently lower root to shoot ratios than did plants from native ranges grown in both monoculture and competition. In the low nutrient treatment, C. odorata plants from nonnative ranges showed significantly lower competitive ability (competition-driven decreases in plant height and biomass were more), which was associated with their lower root to shoot ratios and higher total leaf phenolic content (defense trait). In the high nutrient treatment, C. odorata plants from nonnative ranges showed lower leaf toughness and cellulosic contents (defense traits) but similar competitive ability compared with plants from native ranges, which was also associated with their lower root to shoot ratios. Our results indicate that genetically based shifts in biomass allocation (responses to abiotic environments) also influence competitive abilities of invasive plants, and provide a first potential mechanism for the interaction between range and environment (environment-dependent difference between ranges). PMID:23977140

Unmanned Maritime Systems Incremental Acquisition Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-01

We find that current UMS acquisitions are utilizing previous acquisition reforms, but could benefit from additional contractor peer competition and...peer review. Additional cost and schedule benefits could result from contractor competition during build processes in each incremental process. We...acquisitions are utilizing previous acquisition reforms, but could benefit from additional contractor peer competition and peer review. Additional

Programmatic and economic challenges for commercial space processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Overfelt, Tony; Watkins, John

1997-01-01

The International Space Station is the largest cooperative space project in history and is likely to be industry's most viable access to the low-g environment for long duration materials processing experiments. Such access will provide unique and competitive research capabilities to industry if private sector entities can commercially utilize the Space Station for their industrial projects. Although ``commercial utilization'' implies a variety of things to different people, the key industrial issues are frequent, reliable, and economical access to space as well as protection of private sector intellectual property rights. This paper discusses how these key issues will influence the programmatic and economic challenges for commercial space processing in the future Space Station era.

Changes in School Competitive Food Environments after a Health Promotion Campaign

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Sarah H.; Mallya, Giridhar; Brensinger, Colleen; Tierney, Ann; Glanz, Karen

2018-01-01

Background: Schools can reduce student access to competitive foods and influence healthy food choices by improving the school nutrition environment. This study describes changes in competitive nutrition environments in 100 K-8 schools participating in the Philadelphia Campaign for Healthier Schools. Methods: Interviews with school staff were used…

Reciprocal Prioritization to Dietary Glycans by Gut Bacteria in a Competitive Environment Promotes Stable Coexistence.

PubMed

Tuncil, Yunus E; Xiao, Yao; Porter, Nathan T; Reuhs, Bradley L; Martens, Eric C; Hamaker, Bruce R

2017-10-10

When presented with nutrient mixtures, several human gut Bacteroides species exhibit hierarchical utilization of glycans through a phenomenon that resembles catabolite repression. However, it is unclear how closely these observed physiological changes, often measured by altered transcription of glycan utilization genes, mirror actual glycan depletion. To understand the glycan prioritization strategies of two closely related human gut symbionts, Bacteroides ovatus and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron , we performed a series of time course assays in which both species were individually grown in a medium with six different glycans that both species can degrade. Disappearance of the substrates and transcription of the corresponding polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) were measured. Each species utilized some glycans before others, but with different priorities per species, providing insight into species-specific hierarchical preferences. In general, the presence of highly prioritized glycans repressed transcription of genes involved in utilizing lower-priority nutrients. However, transcriptional sensitivity to some glycans varied relative to the residual concentration in the medium, with some PULs that target high-priority substrates remaining highly expressed even after their target glycan had been mostly depleted. Coculturing of these organisms in the same mixture showed that the hierarchical orders generally remained the same, promoting stable coexistence. Polymer length was found to be a contributing factor for glycan utilization, thereby affecting its place in the hierarchy. Our findings not only elucidate how B. ovatus and B. thetaiotaomicron strategically access glycans to maintain coexistence but also support the prioritization of carbohydrate utilization based on carbohydrate structure, advancing our understanding of the relationships between diet and the gut microbiome. IMPORTANCE The microorganisms that reside in the human colon fulfill their energy requirements mainly from diet- and host-derived complex carbohydrates. Members of this ecosystem possess poorly understood strategies to prioritize and compete for these nutrients. Based on direct carbohydrate measurements and corresponding transcriptional analyses, our findings showed that individual bacterial species exhibit different preferences for the same set of glycans and that this prioritization is maintained in a competitive environment, which may promote stable coexistence. Such understanding of gut bacterial glycan utilization will be essential to eliciting predictable changes in the gut microbiota to improve health through the diet. Copyright © 2017 Tuncil et al.

More Than the Win: The Relation between Appetitive Competition Motivation, Socialization, and Gender Role Orientation in Women's Football

PubMed Central

Meyer-Parlapanis, Danie; Siefert, Sabrina; Weierstall, Roland

2017-01-01

The ability to produce peak performance plays a decisive role in the success of athletes in competitive contest situations. Levels of appetitive competition motivation (ACM), i.e., the desire to defeat an opponent independent of secondary reinforcing factors, were assessed in professional female football/soccer players in the premier and regional leagues, using club level as the measurement of sport success. Furthermore, the influence of social environments predominantly encouraging masculine and competitive play behavior and the players' perceptions of their own gender role orientations were investigated. Ninety female football players from the German premier league (44) and regional leagues (46) participated (age: M = 24, SD = 5 years). Questionnaires ascertaining ACM and self-perceptions of gender via gender-role stereotypes, childhood play behavior and style of upbringing were utilized. Premier league athletes showed a significantly greater inclination toward direct sporting confrontations. Almost 50% of the variance in ACM between the premier and regional league athletes was determined by modern upbringing style and the development of gender roles not corresponding to classic female gender stereotypes. The results emphasize the significance of ACM as an important facet in competitive sports and illustrate the influence of socialization on athletic performance. PMID:28450840

Insights on Technology Innovation - A Review of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Competition Entries 2002-2015

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Simon, Joseph J; Doris, Elizabeth S; Farrar, Sara L

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition that challenges student teams to design and build full-size, solar-powered houses. Because of balanced design priorities of architecture, engineering, innovation, performance, and energy use, teams have focused on a range of technologies in the built environment, from wall materials to home control systems, from electric lighting to HVAC equipment, and from geothermal to solar photovoltaic technology. This report provides insights into building technology innovation from a review of the Solar Decathlon competition entry designs, anecdotal experiences, and related market reports. The report describes example case studies of themore » evolution of technology solutions over time to illustrate the innovative, market-driving nature of the Solar Decathlon. It charts technologies utilized in the team designs over seven competitions and compares those to broader market adoption. It is meant to illustrate the technology innovation aspects of the competition, not to be a comprehensive or quantitative analysis. Solar Decathlon also has impacts on public perception of innovative technologies as well as workforce development through the thousands of participating students. The focus of these case studies is to showcase how it contributes to marketplace adoption of innovative energy technologies.« less

An exploratory study of competition scores and salivary cortisol concentrations in Warmblood horses.

PubMed

Munk, R; Jensen, R B; Palme, R; Munksgaard, L; Christensen, J W

2017-10-01

The main objective of this explorative study was to describe the relationship between competition scores and salivary cortisol concentrations in young horses during dressage and showjumping competitions. The study also investigated whether the diurnal rhythm of salivary cortisol concentrations was affected by competition over consecutive days compared with the home environment. Saliva samples were collected from 126 dressage horses and showjumpers in their home environment and at 3 different events. The relationship between scores given by judges at the competition and cortisol concentrations at the event was assessed. The results demonstrated that competition scores correlated positively to baseline cortisol concentrations at one of 3 events (r = 0.53, P < 0.001). Salivary cortisol concentrations followed a diurnal rhythm with the highest concentrations measured in the morning and the lowest in the evening, both at home and in the competition environment (P < 0.05). Salivary cortisol concentrations were greater during the competitions than at home (P < 0.05) except at one event where showjumpers did not increase between home and competition. Dressage horses had the highest baseline cortisol concentrations at competition, and exercise caused cortisol concentrations to increase in both showjumpers and dressage horses (P < 0.001). In conclusion, the diurnal rhythm in salivary cortisol concentrations was maintained in the novel environment. Dressage horses demonstrated greater baseline cortisol concentrations at competition than showjumpers, suggesting that they may perceive the novel environment as more stressful. Furthermore, there was no consistent relationship between baseline salivary cortisol concentrations and competition scores across the events. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Relative family performance and variance structure of open-pollinated Douglas-fir seedlings grown in three competitive environments.

Treesearch

J.B. St. Clair; W.T. Adams

1991-01-01

Open-pollinated Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) families were tested in three contrasting competitive environments to test the hypothesis that relative performance as measured by total seedling dry weight is dependent upon distance or genotype of neighbors. The three competitive environments...

Collaborative gaming and competition for CS-STEM education using SPHERES Zero Robotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nag, Sreeja; Katz, Jacob G.; Saenz-Otero, Alvar

2013-02-01

There is widespread investment of resources in the fields of Computer Science, Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (CS-STEM) education to improve STEM interests and skills. This paper addresses the goal of revolutionizing student education using collaborative gaming and competition, both in virtual simulation environments and on real hardware in space. The concept is demonstrated using the SPHERES Zero Robotics (ZR) Program which is a robotics programming competition. The robots are miniature satellites called SPHERES—an experimental test bed developed by the MIT SSL on the International Space Station (ISS) to test navigation, formation flight and control algorithms in microgravity. The participants compete to win a technically challenging game by programming their strategies into the SPHERES satellites, completely from a web browser. The programs are demonstrated in simulation, on ground hardware and then in a final competition when an astronaut runs the student software aboard the ISS. ZR had a pilot event in 2009 with 10 High School (HS) students, a nationwide pilot tournament in 2010 with over 200 HS students from 19 US states, a summer tournament in 2010 with ˜150 middle school students and an open-registration tournament in 2011 with over 1000 HS students from USA and Europe. The influence of collaboration was investigated by (1) building new web infrastructure and an Integrated Development Environment where intensive inter-participant collaboration is possible, (2) designing and programming a game to solve a relevant formation flight problem, collaborative in nature—and (3) structuring a tournament such that inter-team collaboration is mandated. This paper introduces the ZR web tools, assesses the educational value delivered by the program using space and games and evaluates the utility of collaborative gaming within this framework. There were three types of collaborations as variables—within matches (to achieve game objectives), inter-team alliances and unstructured communication on online forums. Simulation competition scores, website usage statistics and post-competition surveys are used to evaluate educational impact and the effect of collaboration.

Stoichiometric modelling of assimilatory and dissimilatory biomass utilisation in a microbial community

PubMed Central

Hunt, Kristopher A.; Jennings, Ryan deM.; Inskeep, William P.; Carlson, Ross P.

2017-01-01

Summary Assimilatory and dissimilatory utilisation of autotroph biomass by heterotrophs is a fundamental mechanism for the transfer of nutrients and energy across trophic levels. Metagenome data from a tractable, thermoacidophilic microbial community in Yellowstone National Park was used to build an in silico model to study heterotrophic utilisation of autotroph biomass using elementary flux mode analysis and flux balance analysis. Assimilatory and dissimilatory biomass utilisation was investigated using 29 forms of biomass-derived dissolved organic carbon (DOC) including individual monomer pools, individual macromolecular pools and aggregate biomass. The simulations identified ecologically competitive strategies for utilizing DOC under conditions of varying electron donor, electron acceptor or enzyme limitation. The simulated growth environment affected which form of DOC was the most competitive use of nutrients; for instance, oxygen limitation favoured utilisation of less reduced and fermentable DOC while carbon-limited environments favoured more reduced DOC. Additionally, metabolism was studied considering two encompassing metabolic strategies: simultaneous versus sequential use of DOC. Results of this study bound the transfer of nutrients and energy through microbial food webs, providing a quantitative foundation relevant to most microbial ecosystems. PMID:27387069

Reshaping the electric utility industry: Competitive implications for Illinois

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maschoff, D.C.

1995-12-31

This paper briefly outlines some of the issues in the electric power industry restructuring. In addition, the impacts of these changes on the energy marketplace are discussed. Federal policy initiatives, state regulatory response, and utility management response are each described. Management skills are identified as the critical success factor for competition in the utility market.

Loss of competition in the outside host environment generates outbreaks of environmental opportunist pathogens.

PubMed

Anttila, Jani; Ruokolainen, Lasse; Kaitala, Veijo; Laakso, Jouni

2013-01-01

Environmentally transmitted pathogens face ecological interactions (e.g., competition, predation, parasitism) in the outside-host environment and host immune system during infection. Despite the ubiquitousness of environmental opportunist pathogens, traditional epidemiology focuses on obligatory pathogens incapable of environmental growth. Here we ask how competitive interactions in the outside-host environment affect the dynamics of an opportunist pathogen. We present a model coupling the classical SI and Lotka-Volterra competition models. In this model we compare a linear infectivity response and a sigmoidal infectivity response. An important assumption is that pathogen virulence is traded off with competitive ability in the environment. Removing this trade-off easily results in host extinction. The sigmoidal response is associated with catastrophic appearances of disease outbreaks when outside-host species richness, or overall competition pressure, decreases. This indicates that alleviating outside-host competition with antibacterial substances that also target the competitors can have unexpected outcomes by providing benefits for opportunist pathogens. These findings may help in developing alternative ways of controlling environmental opportunist pathogens.

Niche complementarity due to plasticity in resource use: plant partitioning of chemical N forms.

PubMed

Ashton, Isabel W; Miller, Amy E; Bowman, William D; Suding, Katharine N

2010-11-01

Niche complementarity, in which coexisting species use different forms of a resource, has been widely invoked to explain some of the most debated patterns in ecology, including maintenance of diversity and relationships between diversity and ecosystem function. However, classical models assume resource specialization in the form of distinct niches, which does not obviously apply to the broadly overlapping resource use in plant communities. Here we utilize an experimental framework based on competition theory to test whether plants partition resources via classical niche differentiation or via plasticity in resource use. We explore two alternatives: niche preemption, in which individuals respond to a superior competitor by switching to an alternative, less-used resource, and dominant plasticity, in which superior competitors exhibit high resource use plasticity and shift resource use depending on the competitive environment. We determined competitive ability by measuring growth responses with and without neighbors over a growing season and then used 15N tracer techniques to measure uptake of different nitrogen (N) forms in a field setting. We show that four alpine plant species of differing competitive abilities have statistically indistinguishable uptake patterns (nitrate > ammonium > glycine) in their fundamental niche (without competitors) but differ in whether they shift these uptake patterns in their realized niche (with competitors). Competitively superior species increased their uptake of the most available N form, ammonium, when in competition with the rarer, competitively inferior species. In contrast, the competitively inferior species did not alter its N uptake pattern in competition. The existence of plasticity in resource use among the dominant species provides a mechanism that helps to explain the manner by which plant species with broadly overlapping resource use might coexist.

Effects of climate on competitive dynamics in mixed conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada

Treesearch

Christal Johnson; Sophan Chhin; Jianwei Zhang

2017-01-01

Trees in more competitive environments appear to respond to climate differently than trees in less competitive environments. In turn, climate patterns may affect inter- or intra-specific competition, favoring certain individuals over others. Using dendrochronological methods, we sampled cores from dominant pine trees and their nearby competitors in 40 stands in the...

Case study of McCormick place cogeneration project

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Overstreet, E.L.

1994-12-31

In the authors business of providing district energy services, competition is the key to his being able to have a positive impact on the environment, business stability, and economic activity. In the district energy industry, the competitive options are for property owners to continue to self generate energy to meet their needs, purchase energy from a company that utilizes electricity during off-peak hours to produce chilled water or take advantage of a total solution of purchasing tri-generation energy from Trigen-Peoples District Energy Company. Tri-generation is an innovative technology which involves the simultaneous production of steam, chilled water, and electricity. Themore » McCormick Place cogeneration project calls for producing steam and chilled water (co-) for use by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA). The plant will produce electricity (tri-) to run the production equipment.« less

A GIS-based Model for Natural Gas Data Conversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bitik, E.; Seker, D. Z.; Denli, H. H.

2014-12-01

In Turkey gas utility sector has undergone major changes in terms of increased competition between gas providers, efforts in improving services, and applying new technological solutions. This paper discusses the challenges met by gas companies to switch from long workflows of gas distribution, sales and maintenance into IT driven efficient management of complex information both spatially and non-spatially. The aim of this study is migration of all gas data and information into a GIS environment in order to manage and operate all infrastructure investments with a Utility Management System. All data conversion model for migration was designed and tested during the study. A flowchart is formed to transfer the old data layers to the new structure based on geodatabase.

Deregulation of the California electric power industry: An analysis of electric and natural gas corporate mergers and their effect on the California electric power market

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hornbuckle, James Dixon

Deregulation of the electric utility industry in California is moving in a direction that places greater reliance on the market forces of competition. Investor owned utilities (IOU's) are using mergers and acquisitions to improve their ability to compete in this new environment. Two large mergers were proposed in 1996 that could affect the California market. The first is between Enron Corporation, a large power marketer and Portland General Corporation, owner of Portland General Electric. The second is between Pacific Enterprises Inc., owner of Southern California Gas Company, the largest natural gas utility in the U. S., and Enova Corporation, owner of San Diego Gas and Electric Company. Understanding the impact of these mergers on the California electric power market is the focus of this study. This study examines hypotheses dealing with: (1) Merger Strategy, (2) Efficiency, and (3) Market Power. Using the Miles and Snow (1978) typology, I develop a strategic orientation model for the merger participants and their competitors. The results suggest a two-stage strategic orientation: (1) regulated core business stage, where the firms follow a Defender strategy, and (2) unregulated business stage, where the firms follow a Prospector strategy. Further, the results show the mergers are consistent with the strategy of Enron and Pacific Enterprises. Event study methodology, dollar gains/losses and market value weighted returns are used to determine if the mergers support the efficiency hypothesis. The evidence suggests the mergers lead to increased competitive advantage through improved efficiency for the participants. The results also suggest the mergers do not harm the rivals. The results of structural changes made by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in deregulation of the California market and analysis of the mergers by the CPUC and the Public Utility Commission of Oregon suggest that the exercise of market power is not a significant issue. Finally, the likely winners in the deregulated environment in California are the broad-based IOU firms, which use a combination Defender/Prospector strategy and do not over-commit resources to mergers or acquisitions.

Today's utility business (or, Boy Scouts in the Temple of Mammon)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hyman, L.S.

1993-06-01

In the good old days of monopoly, it didn't matter so much how assets or liabilities were carried on the books. Today it matters very much. But in today's competitive environment it is even more important that utilities have a corporate strategy that takes advantage of their assets and is sensitive to both their customers and their competitors. In the good old days, electric utilities were natural monopolies. Regulators substituted their judgments for those of the marketplace, the utility's engineers managed the production process, its lawyers managed the regulators, and nobody managed the utility as a business. The utility wasmore » not a business. It was a quasi-governmental public service institution that - incidentally - threw off an ever-increasing dividend stream to shareholders who thought that they had purchased the equivalent of a bond that had an attached inflation hedge. The good old days are gone. The business is becoming a real one. Customers have choices. Yet the utility's accounting, managerial, and regulatory policies are rooted in the precepts of the old natural monopoly: the utility will always be the cheapest source of electricity, and customers will always need electricity.« less

Experimental Evidence Shows the Importance of Behavioural Plasticity and Body Size under Competition in Waterfowl

PubMed Central

Zhang, Yong; Prins, Herbert H. T.; Versluijs, Martijn; Wessels, Rick; Cao, Lei; de Boer, Willem Frederik

2016-01-01

When differently sized species feed on the same resources, interference competition may occur, which may negatively affect their food intake rate. It is expected that competition between species also alters behaviour and feeding patch selection. To assess these changes in behaviour and patch selection, we applied an experimental approach using captive birds of three differently sized Anatidae species: wigeon (Anas penelope) (~600 g), swan goose (Anser cygnoides) (~2700 g) and bean goose (Anser fabalis) (~3200 g). We quantified the functional response for each species and then recorded their behaviour and patch selection with and without potential competitors, using different species combinations. Our results showed that all three species acquired the highest nitrogen intake at relatively tall swards (6, 9 cm) when foraging in single species flocks in the functional response experiment. Goose species were offered foraging patches differing in sward height with and without competitors, and we tested for the effect of competition on foraging behaviour. The mean percentage of time spent feeding and being vigilant did not change under competition for all species. However, all species utilized strategies that increased their peck rate on patches across different sward heights, resulting in the same instantaneous and nitrogen intake rate. Our results suggest that variation in peck rate over different swards height permits Anatidae herbivores to compensate for the loss of intake under competition, illustrating the importance of behavioural plasticity in heterogeneous environments when competing with other species for resources. PMID:27727315

Offspring size effects mediate competitive interactions in a colonial marine invertebrate.

PubMed

Marshall, Dustin J; Cook, Carly N; Emlet, Richard B

2006-01-01

Over the past 30 years, numerous attempts to understand the relationship between offspring size and fitness have been made, and it has become clear that this critical relationship is strongly affected by environmental heterogeneity. For marine invertebrates, there has been a long-standing interest in the evolution of offspring size, but there have been very few empirical and theoretical examinations of post-metamorphic offspring size effects, and almost none have considered the effect of environmental heterogeneity on the offspring size/fitness relationship. We investigated the post-metamorphic effects of offspring size in the field for the colonial marine invertebrate Botrylloides violaceus. We also examined how the relationship between offspring size and performance was affected by three different types of intraspecific competition. We found strong and persistent effects of offspring size on survival and growth, but these effects depended on the level and type of intraspecific competition. Generally, competition strengthened the advantages of increasing maternal investment. Interestingly, we found that offspring size determined the outcome of competitive interaction: juveniles that had more maternal investment were more likely to encroach on another juvenile's territory. This suggests that mothers have the previously unrecognized potential to influence the outcome of competitive interactions in benthic marine invertebrates. We created a simple optimality model, which utilized the data generated from our field experiments, and found that increasing intraspecific competition resulted in an increase in predicted optimal size. Our results suggest that the relationship between offspring size and fitness is highly variable in the marine environment and strongly dependent on the density of conspecifics.

Evaluation of the Competitive Environment for White Pine (Pinus strobus L.) Seedlings Planted on Prescribed Burn Sites in the Southern Appalachians

Treesearch

Katherine J. Elliott; James M. Vose

1995-01-01

We evaluated the competitive environment around planted white pine (Pinus strobus L.) seedlings and monitored the response of seedling growth to competition from naturally regenerating herbaceous and woody species for 2 yr after prescribed burning. We evaluated the bility of distance-independent and distance-dependent competition indices to predict resource...

Structure, environment and strategic outcome: a study of Pennsylvania nursing homes.

PubMed

Aaronson, W E; Zinn, J S; Rosko, M D

1995-02-01

This study applies Porter's model of competitive advantage to the nursing home industry. Discriminant analysis is used to identify organizational and environmental characteristics associated with nursing homes which have demonstrated valued strategic outcomes, and to distinguish the more successful nursing homes from their rivals. The results of the discriminant analysis suggest that nursing homes with superior payer mix outcomes are distinguishable from their less successful rivals in areas associated with a focused generic strategy. The study suggests that nursing homes which are better staffed, of smaller size and lower price are more likely to achieve high levels of self-pay utilization. Independent living units, continuing care retirement communities in particular, are likely to act synergistically with nursing home organizational characteristics to enhance competitive advantage by linking the value chain of the nursing home to that of retirement housing. Nursing homes with higher proportions of Medicare were found to provide a unique product when compared to their rivals. Profit status does not discriminate better self-pay strategic utilization, but for-profit facilities are more likely to pursue a Medicare strategy. Concern was raised that, as nursing homes become more strategically oriented, Medicaid access may become more problematic.

American power conference: Proceedings

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1994-01-01

The first volume of this conference contains papers on the following topics: (1) Controls, monitoring, and expert systems (Harnessing microprocessor revolution for a more competitive power industry; Plant control--Upgrades; Neural network applications); (2) Diversification and globalization (Electric utility diversification/globalization--Panel; Private power in developing countries); (3) Environment and clean air (Clean Air compliance costs; Site selection for power stations and related facilities; Electric utility trace substance emissions; Solid waste disposal and commercial use; Precipitators/fabric filters; and Effect of flow modifications on fisheries and water quality); (4) Generation--Fuel options equipment (Alternate fuels; Advances in fuel cells for electric power applications; Secondary containmentmore » and seismic requirements for petrochemical facilities; Clean coal technology demonstration; Advanced energy systems; Hydropower); (5) Nuclear operations options (Radioactive waste management and disposal; Off normal conditions; Advanced light water reactors--15 years after TMI; Structural dynamic analyses for nuclear power plants); (6) Retrofit, betterment, repowering maintenance (Project management; Improving competitiveness through process re-engineering; Central stations; Water and wastewater treatment); (7) System planning, operation demand maintenance (Transmission system access; Stability; Systems planning); (8) Transmission and distribution (Transformers; Relaying for system protection; Managing EMF effects); and (9) Education (Power engineering). 155 papers have been processed separately for inclusion on the data base.« less

Budget Allocation in a Competitive Communication Spectrum Economy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Ming-Hua; Tsai, Jung-Fa; Ye, Yinyu

2009-12-01

This study discusses how to adjust "monetary budget" to meet each user's physical power demand, or balance all individual utilities in a competitive "spectrum market" of a communication system. In the market, multiple users share a common frequency or tone band and each of them uses the budget to purchase its own transmit power spectra (taking others as given) in maximizing its Shannon utility or pay-off function that includes the effect of interferences. A market equilibrium is a budget allocation, price spectrum, and tone power distribution that independently and simultaneously maximizes each user's utility. The equilibrium conditions of the market are formulated and analyzed, and the existence of an equilibrium is proved. Computational results and comparisons between the competitive equilibrium and Nash equilibrium solutions are also presented, which show that the competitive market equilibrium solution often provides more efficient power distribution.

Cost-benefit analysis: the first real rule of fight club?

PubMed Central

Hillman, Kristin L.

2013-01-01

Competition is ubiquitous among social animals. Vying against a conspecific to achieve a particular outcome often requires one to act aggressively, but this is a costly and inherently risky behavior. So why do we aggressively compete, or at the extreme, fight against others? Early work suggested that competitive aggression might stem from an innate aggressive tendency, emanating from subcortical structures. Later work highlighted key cortical regions that contribute toward an instrumental aggression network, one that is recruited or suppressed as needed to achieve a goal. Recent neuroimaging work hints that competitive aggression is upmost a cost-benefit decision, in that it appears to recruit many components of traditional, non-social decision-making networks. This review provides a historical glimpse into the neuroscience of competitive aggression, and proposes a conceptual advancement for studying competitive behavior by outlining how utility calculations of contested-for resources are skewed, pre- and post-competition. A basic multi-factorial model of utility assessment is proposed to account for competitive endowment effects that stem from the presence of peers, peer salience and disposition, and the tactical effort required for victory. In part, competitive aggression is a learned behavior that should only be repeated if positive outcomes are achieved. However, due to skewed utility assessments, deviations of associative learning occur. Hence truly careful cost-benefit analysis is warranted before choosing to vie against another. PMID:24391531

Cost-benefit analysis: the first real rule of fight club?

PubMed

Hillman, Kristin L

2013-12-19

Competition is ubiquitous among social animals. Vying against a conspecific to achieve a particular outcome often requires one to act aggressively, but this is a costly and inherently risky behavior. So why do we aggressively compete, or at the extreme, fight against others? Early work suggested that competitive aggression might stem from an innate aggressive tendency, emanating from subcortical structures. Later work highlighted key cortical regions that contribute toward an instrumental aggression network, one that is recruited or suppressed as needed to achieve a goal. Recent neuroimaging work hints that competitive aggression is upmost a cost-benefit decision, in that it appears to recruit many components of traditional, non-social decision-making networks. This review provides a historical glimpse into the neuroscience of competitive aggression, and proposes a conceptual advancement for studying competitive behavior by outlining how utility calculations of contested-for resources are skewed, pre- and post-competition. A basic multi-factorial model of utility assessment is proposed to account for competitive endowment effects that stem from the presence of peers, peer salience and disposition, and the tactical effort required for victory. In part, competitive aggression is a learned behavior that should only be repeated if positive outcomes are achieved. However, due to skewed utility assessments, deviations of associative learning occur. Hence truly careful cost-benefit analysis is warranted before choosing to vie against another.

Ethnic Resources Utilization of Korean Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the Chicago Minority Area.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Kwang Chung; Hurh, Won Moo

1985-01-01

Korean entrepreneurs rely heavily on their ethnic resources for both business formation and operation. While such resource utilization facilitates immigrants' business entry and gives them competitive advantage in the general marketplace, the same mechanism poses the problems of entra-ethnic business competition and precarious position as a…

The hydrodynamics of plant spacing distance: Optimizing consumptive and non-consumptive water use in water-limited environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trautz, A.; Illangasekare, T. H.; Rodriguez-Iturbe, I.; Howington, S. E.

2017-12-01

The availability of soil moisture in water-stressed environments is one of the primary factors controlling plant performance and overall plant community productivity and structure. The minimization of non-consumptive water loss, or water not utilized by plants (i.e. consumptive use), to bare soil evaporation is a key plant survival strategy and important agricultural consideration. Competitive (negative) and facilitative (positive) interactions between individual plants play a pivotal role in controlling the local coupled soil-plant-atmosphere hydrodynamics that affect both consumptive and non-consumptive water use. The strength of these two types of interactions vary with spacing distance between individuals. In a recent PNAS publication, we hypothesized that there exists a quantifiable spacing distance between plants that optimizes the balance between competition and facilitation, and hence maximizes water conservation. This study expands upon on our previous work, for which only a subset of the data generated was used, through the development and testing of a numerical model that can test a conceptual model we presented. The model simulates soil-plant-atmosphere continuum heat and mass transfer hydrodynamics, taking into account the complex feedbacks that exist between the near-surface atmosphere, subsurface, and plants. This model has been developed to explore the combined effects of subsurface competition and micro-climatic amelioration (i.e., facilitation) on local soil moisture redistribution and fluxes in the context of water-stressed environments that experienced sustained winds. We believe the results have the potential to provide new insights into climatological, ecohydrological, and hydrological problems pertaining to: the extensively used and much debated stress-gradient hypothesis, plant community population self-organization, agricultural best practices (e.g., water management), and spatial heterogeneity of land-atmosphere fluxes.

In vitro experimental environments lacking or containing soil disparately affect competition experiments of Aspergillus flavus and co-occurring fungi in maize grains.

PubMed

Falade, Titilayo D O; Syed Mohdhamdan, Sharifah H; Sultanbawa, Yasmina; Fletcher, Mary T; Harvey, Jagger J W; Chaliha, Mridusmita; Fox, Glen P

2016-07-01

In vitro experimental environments are used to study interactions between microorganisms, and to predict dynamics in natural ecosystems. This study highlights that experimental in vitro environments should be selected to match closely the natural environment of interest during in vitro studies to strengthen extrapolations about aflatoxin production by Aspergillus and competing organisms. Fungal competition and aflatoxin accumulation were studied in soil, cotton wool or tube (water-only) environments, for Aspergillus flavus competition with Penicillium purpurogenum, Fusarium oxysporum or Sarocladium zeae within maize grains. Inoculated grains were incubated in each environment at two temperature regimes (25 and 30°C). Competition experiments showed interaction between the main effects of aflatoxin accumulation and the environment at 25°C, but not so at 30°C. However, competition experiments showed fungal populations were always interacting with their environments. Fungal survival differed after the 72-h incubation in different experimental environments. Whereas all fungi incubated within the soil environment survived, in the cotton wool environment none of the competitors of A. flavus survived at 30°C. With aflatoxin accumulation, F. oxysporum was the only fungus able to interdict aflatoxin production at both temperatures. This occurred only in the soil environment and fumonisins accumulated instead. Smallholder farmers in developing countries face serious mycotoxin contamination of their grains, and soil is a natural reservoir for the associated fungal propagules, and a drying and storage surface for grains on these farms. Studying fungal dynamics in the soil environment and other environments in vitro can provide insights into aflatoxin accumulation post-harvest.

The role of drought- and disturbance-mediated competition in shaping community responses to varied environments.

PubMed

Napier, Joseph D; Mordecai, Erin A; Heckman, Robert W

2016-06-01

By altering the strength of intra- and interspecific competition, droughts may reshape plant communities. Furthermore, species may respond differently to drought when other influences, such as herbivory, are considered. To explore this relationship, we conducted a greenhouse experiment measuring responses to inter- and intraspecific competition for two grasses, Schedonorus arundinaceus and Paspalum dilatatum, while varying water availability and simulating herbivory via clipping. We then parameterized population growth models to examine the long-term outcome of competition under these conditions. Under drought, S. arundinaceus was less water stressed than P. dilatatum, which exhibited severe water stress; clipping alleviated this stress, increasing the competitive ability of P. dilatatum relative to S. arundinaceus. Although P. dilatatum competed weakly under drought, clipping reduced water stress in P. dilatatum, thereby enhancing its ability to compete with S. arundinaceus under drought. Supporting these observations, population growth models predicted that P. dilatatum would exclude S. arundinaceus when clipped under drought, while S. arundinaceus would exclude P. dilatatum when unclipped under drought. When the modeled environment varied temporally, environmental variation promoted niche differences that, though insufficient to maintain stable coexistence, prevented unconditional competitive exclusion by promoting priority effects. Our results suggest that it is important to consider how species respond not just to stable, but also to variable, environments. When species differ in their responses to drought, competition, and simulated herbivory, stable environments may promote competitive exclusion, while fluctuating environments may promote coexistence. These interactions are critical to understanding how species will respond to global change.

Teaching Diversity through Case Competition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, T. Nichole; Wood, Lynette I.

2017-01-01

This paper shares the process and outcomes of utilizing case competitions as an approach to diversity education. A university-wide case competition was held for two consecutive years. We detail the procedure for facilitating the competition, the role of internal and external stakeholders, and student performance and feedback. It is our position…

Black Hills versus Weinberger: How Useful is It for Other Air Force Bases to Competitively Acquire Electricity.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-04-01

whether the base must follow state created utility franchise territories. This paper analyzes the court opinion approving the competition, and the...the state franchised electric utility, Black Hills Power & Light Company (Black Hills), Ellswor-th competed for this additional power need. A company...utility franchise laws and regulations when it purchased the additional power. Both the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota

Will They Stay or Will They Go? International Graduate Students and Their Decisions to Stay or Leave the U.S. upon Graduation

PubMed Central

Han, Xueying; Stocking, Galen; Gebbie, Matthew A.; Appelbaum, Richard P.

2015-01-01

The U.S. currently enjoys a position among the world’s foremost innovative and scientifically advanced economies but the emergence of new economic powerhouses like China and India threatens to disrupt the global distribution of innovation and economic competitiveness. Among U.S. policy makers, the promotion of advanced education, particularly in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, has become a key strategy for ensuring the U.S.’s position as an innovative economic leader. Since approximately one third of science and engineering post-graduate students in the U.S. are foreign born, the future of the U.S. STEM educational system is intimately tied to issues of global competitiveness and American immigration policy. This study utilizes a combination of national education data, a survey of foreign-born STEM graduate students, and in-depth interviews of a sub-set of those students to explain how a combination of scientists’ and engineers’ educational decisions, as well as their experience in school, can predict a students’ career path and geographical location, which can affect the long-term innovation environment in their home and destination country. This study highlights the fact that the increasing global competitiveness in STEM education and the complex, restrictive nature of U.S. immigration policies are contributing to an environment where the American STEM system may no longer be able to comfortably remain the premier destination for the world’s top international students. PMID:25760327

Will they stay or will they go? International graduate students and their decisions to stay or leave the U.S. upon graduation.

PubMed

Han, Xueying; Stocking, Galen; Gebbie, Matthew A; Appelbaum, Richard P

2015-01-01

The U.S. currently enjoys a position among the world's foremost innovative and scientifically advanced economies but the emergence of new economic powerhouses like China and India threatens to disrupt the global distribution of innovation and economic competitiveness. Among U.S. policy makers, the promotion of advanced education, particularly in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, has become a key strategy for ensuring the U.S.'s position as an innovative economic leader. Since approximately one third of science and engineering post-graduate students in the U.S. are foreign born, the future of the U.S. STEM educational system is intimately tied to issues of global competitiveness and American immigration policy. This study utilizes a combination of national education data, a survey of foreign-born STEM graduate students, and in-depth interviews of a sub-set of those students to explain how a combination of scientists' and engineers' educational decisions, as well as their experience in school, can predict a students' career path and geographical location, which can affect the long-term innovation environment in their home and destination country. This study highlights the fact that the increasing global competitiveness in STEM education and the complex, restrictive nature of U.S. immigration policies are contributing to an environment where the American STEM system may no longer be able to comfortably remain the premier destination for the world's top international students.

49 CFR 1180.1 - General policy statement for merger or control of at least two Class I railroads.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... shippers, environmental safeguards, and fair working conditions for employees. The Board must ensure that... continues to operate in a competitive environment, its new efficiencies would be shared with shippers and...) Reduction of competition. Although in specific markets railroads operate in a highly competitive environment...

Interaction of beaver and elk herbivory reduces standing crop of willow

USGS Publications Warehouse

Baker, B.W.; Mitchell, D.C.S.; Ducharme, H.C.; Stanley, T.R.; Peinetti, H.R.

2005-01-01

Populations of beaver and willow have not thrived in riparian environments that are heavily browsed by livestock or ungulates, such as elk. The interaction of beaver and elk herbivory may be an important mechanism underlying beaver and willow declines in this competitive environment. We conducted a field experiment that compared the standing crop of willow three years after simulated beaver cutting on paired plants with and without intense elk browsing (∼85% utilization rate). Simulated beaver cutting with intense elk browsing produced willow that was small (biomass and diameter) and short, with far fewer, but longer, shoots and a higher percentage of dead biomass. In contrast, simulated beaver cutting without elk browsing produced willow that was large, tall, and leafy, with many more, but shorter, shoots (highly branched) and a lower percentage of dead biomass. Total stem biomass after three years was 10 times greater on unbrowsed plants than on browsed plants. Unbrowsed plants recovered 84% of their pre-cut biomass after only two growing seasons, whereas browsed plants recovered only 6%. Thus, the interaction of beaver cutting and elk browsing strongly suppressed the standing crop of willow. We predict that a lack of willow suitable as winter food for beaver can cause beaver populations to decline, creating a feedback mechanism that reduces beaver and willow populations. Thus, intense herbivory by ungulates or livestock can disrupt beaver–willow mutualisms that naturally occur in less competitive environments.

Should utility incumbents be able to extend their brand name to competitive retail markets? An economic perspective

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abel, J.R.; Clements, M.E.

As retail competition begins, at least for the short run, there should be policy restrictions on an incumbent utility`s ability to extend its brand to an affiliated marketer. However, a utility-affiliated marketer should be permitted to compete in a newly deregulated market using a generic or self-developed brand name. If extending a brand name from an incumbent utility to an affiliated marketer does in fact create real barriers to entry in the retail market, competition will be crippled in this market and consumers will suffer. More important, deregulation will appear to have failed in the electric power market--a consequence withmore » effects reaching past the electricity industry to other industries considering deregulation as a viable policy choice. However, if real barriers to entry are not erected by this type of brand name extension, the industry may suffer from lower quality products, less service, and reduced innovation if policymakers prohibit brand name extension.« less

Studying the Effect of a Competitive Game Show in a Learning by Teaching Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matsuda, Noboru; Yarzebinski, Evelyn; Keiser, Victoria; Raizada, Rohan; Stylianides, Gabriel J.; Koedinger, Kenneth R.

2013-01-01

In this paper we investigate how competition among tutees in the context of learning by teaching affects tutors' engagement as well as tutor learning. We conducted this investigation by incorporating a competitive Game Show feature into an online learning environment where students learn to solve algebraic equations by teaching a synthetic…

Study of network resource allocation based on market and game theoretic mechanism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Yingmei; Wang, Hongwei; Wang, Gang

2004-04-01

We work on the network resource allocation issue concerning network management system function based on market-oriented mechanism. The scheme is to model the telecommunication network resources as trading goods in which the various network components could be owned by different competitive, real-world entities. This is a multidisciplinary framework concentrating on the similarity between resource allocation in network environment and the market mechanism in economic theory. By taking an economic (market-based and game theoretic) approach in routing of communication network, we study the dynamic behavior under game-theoretic framework in allocating network resources. Based on the prior work of Gibney and Jennings, we apply concepts of utility and fitness to the market mechanism with an intention to close the gap between experiment environment and real world situation.

Polysaccharide Utilization Loci: Fueling Microbial Communities

PubMed Central

Grondin, Julie M.; Tamura, Kazune; Déjean, Guillaume

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The complex carbohydrates of terrestrial and marine biomass represent a rich nutrient source for free-living and mutualistic microbes alike. The enzymatic saccharification of these diverse substrates is of critical importance for fueling a variety of complex microbial communities, including marine, soil, ruminant, and monogastric microbiota. Consequently, highly specific carbohydrate-active enzymes, recognition proteins, and transporters are enriched in the genomes of certain species and are of critical importance in competitive environments. In Bacteroidetes bacteria, these systems are organized as polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs), which are strictly regulated, colocalized gene clusters that encode enzyme and protein ensembles required for the saccharification of complex carbohydrates. This review provides historical perspectives and summarizes key findings in the study of these systems, highlighting a critical shift from sequence-based PUL discovery to systems-based analyses combining reverse genetics, biochemistry, enzymology, and structural biology to precisely illuminate the molecular mechanisms underpinning PUL function. The ecological implications of dynamic PUL deployment by key species in the human gastrointestinal tract are explored, as well as the wider distribution of these systems in other gut, terrestrial, and marine environments. PMID:28138099

Construction of Industrial Ecosystem of an Electric Company under Ecological Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xin; Zhang, Yuan; Wu, Han

2018-01-01

Be confronted with more and more fierce competition environment, only by constantly integrating, constructing and restructuring internal and external resources as well as capabilities can enterprises adapt themselves to the rapidly changing environment and maintain the advantages of sustained competition. Business competition has changed from product competition of single enterprise to competition of bussiness ecosystem. Therefore, how to build a business system is the key to win competition. This paper draws lessons from business ecosystem and industrial ecosystem concept and takes the subordinate industry company of a large enterprise as the research object. On the the basis of combing its characteristics and organizational structure, an industrial ecosystem is tired to constructed.

Nuclear electric propulsion mission performance for fast piloted Mars missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hack, K. J.; George, J. A.; Dudzinski, L. A.

1991-01-01

A mission study aimed at minimizing the time humans would spend in the space environment is presented. The use of nuclear electric propulsion (NEP), when combined with a suitable mission profile, can reduce the trip time to durations competitive with other propulsion systems. Specifically, a split mission profile utilizing an earth crew capture vehicle accounts for a significant portion of the trip time reduction compared to previous studies. NEP is shown to be capable of performing fast piloted missions to Mars at low power levels using near-term technology and is considered to be a viable candidate for these missions.

Restructuring Public Higher Education Governance to Succeed in a Highly Competitive Environment. Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.6.15

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyatt, James A.

2015-01-01

Given diminished governmental support, competition from private counterparts, and public demands for access to services, public universities need to respond in an effective manner to take advantage of opportunities and meet the challenges of today's highly competitive environment. A critical factor in meeting these challenges is the manner in…

Three essays on research and development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanyal, Paroma

The impact of institutional changes and market structure on research and development (R&D) and technical progress is controversial. My dissertation investigates the determinants of R&D in the context of institutional change. The first two papers address the impact of deregulation in the US electric utility industry on R&D. The third paper investigates the linkage between patenting and different funding sources and patent office attributes. The first paper, "Deregulation, Restructuring and Changing R&D Paradigms in the US Electric Utility Industry", investigates the linkage between market structures and the conduct of R&D in the US electric utility industry. The primary finding of this paper is that institutional and competition factors interact in a way that suggest that the occurrence of full deregulation, coupled with effective retail competition in the market may mitigate the problem of declining R&D expenditures in the face of deregulation. The second paper, "Powering a Green Progress: Environmental Research in the Absence of Regulatory Oversight" analyzes the impact of changing market structure on environmental R&D expenditures by IOUs in the electric utility industry. Conventional wisdom holds that increased competition would lead firms to cut back on R&D funds directed towards social goals, such as the environment. But these arguments fail to take account the threat of future environmental regulations and its influence on disciplining firms. Theory and empirical results from this paper suggest that under certain conditions, even with high monitoring costs, an environmental regulatory agency's threat of stricter future regulations will successfully stem the decrease in environmental R&D expenditures. My third paper, "Birth of a Patent: the Role of Parents, Nursemaids and Constraints", presents an integrated theoretical and empirical approach that models the effects of different sources of R&D funding and patent office attributes on the patenting process. The primary results are: First, the source of R&D funding as well as performer (academic, federal and industry) has a differential effect on patenting. Second, federal R&D has positive spillovers for company R&D. Third, in the short run patenting is heavily influenced by patent office attributes.

How Song Experience Affects Female Mate-Choice, Male Song, and Monoaminergic Activity in the Auditory Telencephalon in Lincoln's Sparrows.

PubMed

Sockman, Keith W; Lyons, Susan M

2017-10-01

A sexual signal can indicate not only the signaler's attractiveness as a potential mate but also the signaler's competitiveness relative to rivals. As the attractiveness or competitiveness of the prevailing signaling environment increases, individuals prospecting for mates should change their choice threshold, whereas competing individuals should shift resources toward elevating their own competitiveness. Previous studies show that experimental elevations of song competition increase male competitive behavior in Lincoln's sparrows (Melospiza lincolnii) and European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Through a series of experimental manipulations using laboratory-housed Lincoln's sparrows, we have also discovered that females change the strength of their song preferences depending on the attractiveness of the song environment to which they have recently been exposed; compared to a less-attractive environment, a highly-attractive environment elevates the threshold for releasing phonotaxis behavior toward male song. These behavioral adjustments are associated with changes in forebrain monoaminergic activity that are triggered by experimental manipulations of the quality of the song environment. Findings from these studies suggest possible neural mechanisms for the regulation of adaptive behavioral plasticity associated with dynamic sexual signaling environments. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Competition and facilitation structure plant communities under nurse tree canopies in extremely stressful environments.

PubMed

Al-Namazi, Ali A; El-Bana, Magdy I; Bonser, Stephen P

2017-04-01

Nurse plant facilitation in stressful environments can produce an environment with relatively low stress under its canopy. These nurse plants may produce the conditions promoting intense competition between coexisting species under the canopy, and canopies may establish stress gradients, where stress increases toward the edge of the canopy. Competition and facilitation on these stress gradients may control species distributions in the communities under canopies. We tested the following predictions: (1) interactions between understory species shift from competition to facilitation in habitats experiencing increasing stress from the center to the edge of canopy of a nurse plant, and (2) species distributions in understory communities are controlled by competitive interactions at the center of canopy, and facilitation at the edge of the canopy. We tested these predictions using a neighbor removal experiment under nurse trees growing in arid environments. Established individuals of each of four of the most common herbaceous species in the understory were used in the experiment. Two species were more frequent in the center of the canopy, and two species were more frequent at the edge of the canopy. Established individuals of each species were subjected to neighbor removal or control treatments in both canopy center and edge habitats. We found a shift from competitive to facilitative interactions from the center to the edge of the canopy. The shift in the effect of neighbors on the target species can help to explain species distributions in these canopies. Canopy-dominant species only perform well in the presence of neighbors in the edge microhabitat. Competition from canopy-dominant species can also limit the performance of edge-dominant species in the canopy microhabitat. The shift from competition to facilitation under nurse plant canopies can structure the understory communities in extremely stressful environments.

Estimating potential stranded commitments for U.S. investor-owned electric utilities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Baxter, L.; Hirst, E.

New technologies, low natural gas prices, and federal and state utility regions are restructuring the electricity industry. Yesterday`s vertically integrated utility with a retail monopoly franchise may be a very different organization in a few years. Conferences, regulatory-commission hearings, and other industry fora are dominated by debates over the extent and form of utility deintegration, wholesale competition, and retail wheeling. A key obstacle to restructuring the electricity industry is stranded commitments. Past investments, power-purchase contracts, and public-policy-driven programs that made sense in an era of cost-of-service regulation may not be cost-effective in a competitive power market. Regulators, utilities, and othermore » parties face tough decisions concerning the mitigation and allocation of these stranded commitments. The authors developed and applied a simple method to calculate the amount of stranded commitments facing US investor-owned electric utilities. The results obtained with this method depend strongly on a few key assumptions: (1) the fraction of utility sales that is at risk with respect to competition, (2) the market price of electric generation, and (3) the number of years during which the utility would lose money because of differences between its embedded cost of production and the market price.« less

HPC on Competitive Cloud Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bientinesi, Paolo; Iakymchuk, Roman; Napper, Jeff

Computing as a utility has reached the mainstream. Scientists can now easily rent time on large commercial clusters that can be expanded and reduced on-demand in real-time. However, current commercial cloud computing performance falls short of systems specifically designed for scientific applications. Scientific computing needs are quite different from those of the web applications that have been the focus of cloud computing vendors. In this chapter we demonstrate through empirical evaluation the computational efficiency of high-performance numerical applications in a commercial cloud environment when resources are shared under high contention. Using the Linpack benchmark as a case study, we show that cache utilization becomes highly unpredictable and similarly affects computation time. For some problems, not only is it more efficient to underutilize resources, but the solution can be reached sooner in realtime (wall-time). We also show that the smallest, cheapest (64-bit) instance on the studied environment is the best for price to performance ration. In light of the high-contention we witness, we believe that alternative definitions of efficiency for commercial cloud environments should be introduced where strong performance guarantees do not exist. Concepts like average, expected performance and execution time, expected cost to completion, and variance measures--traditionally ignored in the high-performance computing context--now should complement or even substitute the standard definitions of efficiency.

The trehalose utilization gene thuA ortholog in Mesorhizobium loti does not influence competitiveness for nodulation on Lotus spp.

PubMed

Ampomah, Osei Yaw; Jensen, John Beck

2014-03-01

Competitiveness for nodulation is a desirable trait in rhizobia strains used as inoculant. In Sinorhizobium meliloti 1021 mutation in either of the trehalose utilization genes thuA or thuB influences its competitiveness for root colonization and nodule occupancy depending on the interacting host. We have therefore investigated whether mutation in the thuA ortholog in Mesorhizobium loti MAFF303099 also leads to a similar competitive phenotype on its hosts. The results show that M. loti thuA mutant Ml7023 was symbiotically effective and was as competitive as the wild type in colonization and nodule occupancy on Lotus corniculatus and Lotus japonicus. The thuA gene in M. loti was not induced during root colonization or in the infection threads unlike in S. meliloti, despite its induction by trehalose and high osmolarity in in vitro assays.

The Effects of Dynamical Rates on Species Coexistence in a Variable Environment: The Paradox of the Plankton Revisited.

PubMed

Li, Lina; Chesson, Peter

2016-08-01

Hutchinson's famous hypothesis for the "paradox of the plankton" has been widely accepted, but critical aspects have remained unchallenged. Hutchinson argued that environmental fluctuations would promote coexistence when the timescale for environmental change is comparable to the timescale for competitive exclusion. Using a consumer-resource model, we do find that timescales of processes are important. However, it is not the time to exclusion that must be compared with the time for environmental change but the time for resource depletion. Fast resource depletion, when resource consumption is favored for different species at different times, strongly promotes coexistence. The time for exclusion is independent of the rate of resource depletion. Therefore, the widely believed predictions of Hutchinson are misleading. Fast resource depletion, as determined by environmental conditions, ensures strong coupling of environmental processes and competition, which leads to enhancement over time of intraspecific competition relative to interspecific competition as environmental shifts favor different species at different times. This critical coupling is measured by the covariance between environment and competition. Changes in this quantity as densities change determine the stability of coexistence and provide the key to rigorous analysis, both theoretically and empirically, of coexistence in a variable environment. These ideas apply broadly to diversity maintenance in variable environments whether the issue is species diversity or genetic diversity and competition or apparent competition.

40 CFR 35.342 - Competitive process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... provided through local engineering schools or other appropriate means. ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Competitive process. 35.342 Section 35.342 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY GRANTS AND OTHER FEDERAL ASSISTANCE...

Getting Competitive: Competitive Intelligence Is a Smart next Step for Information Pros

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Correia, Cynthia Cheng

2006-01-01

Competitive Intelligence (CI) has become an attractive concept for Library and Information Science professionals, as information and research functions have become commoditized by end users, and financial, competitive, and performance pressures increase the need to demonstrate value. In the current competitive and cost-cutting environment,…

Dye-release assay for investigation of antimicrobial peptide activity in a competitive lipid environment.

PubMed

Sani, Marc-Antoine; Gagne, Eve; Gehman, John D; Whitwell, Thomas C; Separovic, Frances

2014-09-01

A dye-release method for investigating the effect of a competitive lipid environment on the activity of two membrane-disrupting antimicrobial peptides (AMP), maculatin 1.1 and aurein 1.2, is presented. The results support the general conclusion that AMP have greater affinity for negatively charged membranes, for example bacterial membranes, than for the neutral membrane surface found in eukaryotic cells, but only within a competitive lipid environment. Indeed, in a single-model membrane environment, both peptides were more potent against neutral vesicles than against charged vesicles. The approach was also used to investigate the effect of pre-incubating the peptides in a neutral lipid environment then introducing charged lipid vesicles. Maculatin was shown to migrate from the neutral lipid bilayers, where pores had already formed, to the charged membrane bilayers. This result was also observed for charged-to-charged bilayers but, interestingly, not for neutral-to-neutral lipid interfaces. Aurein was able to migrate from either lipid environment, indicating weaker binding to lipid membranes, and a different molecular mechanism for lysis of lipid bilayers. Competitive lipid environments could be used to assess other critical conditions that modulate the activity of membrane peptides or proteins.

Pseudomonas fluorescens Pirates both Ferrioxamine and Ferricoelichelin Siderophores from Streptomyces ambofaciens

PubMed Central

Galet, Justine; Deveau, Aurélie; Hôtel, Laurence; Frey-Klett, Pascale; Leblond, Pierre

2015-01-01

Iron is essential in many biological processes. However, its bioavailability is reduced in aerobic environments, such as soil. To overcome this limitation, microorganisms have developed different strategies, such as iron chelation by siderophores. Some bacteria have even gained the ability to detect and utilize xenosiderophores, i.e., siderophores produced by other organisms. We illustrate an example of such an interaction between two soil bacteria, Pseudomonas fluorescens strain BBc6R8 and Streptomyces ambofaciens ATCC 23877, which produce the siderophores pyoverdine and enantiopyochelin and the siderophores desferrioxamines B and E and coelichelin, respectively. During pairwise cultures on iron-limiting agar medium, no induction of siderophore synthesis by P. fluorescens BBc6R8 was observed in the presence of S. ambofaciens ATCC 23877. Cocultures with a Streptomyces mutant strain that produced either coelichelin or desferrioxamines, as well as culture in a medium supplemented with desferrioxamine B, resulted in the absence of pyoverdine production; however, culture with a double mutant deficient in desferrioxamines and coelichelin production did not. This strongly suggests that P. fluorescens BBbc6R8 utilizes the ferrioxamines and ferricoelichelin produced by S. ambofaciens as xenosiderophores and therefore no longer activates the production of its own siderophores. A screening of a library of P. fluorescens BBc6R8 mutants highlighted the involvement of the TonB-dependent receptor FoxA in this process: the expression of foxA and genes involved in the regulation of its biosynthesis was induced in the presence of S. ambofaciens. In a competitive environment, such as soil, siderophore piracy could well be one of the driving forces that determine the outcome of microbial competition. PMID:25724953

Conceptual design of thermal energy storage systems for near-term electric utility applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, E. W.

1980-01-01

Promising thermal energy storage systems for midterm applications in conventional electric utilities for peaking power generation are evaluated. Conceptual designs of selected thermal energy storage systems integrated with conventional utilities are considered including characteristics of alternate systems for peaking power generation, viz gas turbines and coal fired cycling plants. Competitive benefit analysis of thermal energy storage systems with alternate systems for peaking power generation and recommendations for development and field test of thermal energy storage with a conventional utility are included. Results indicate that thermal energy storage is only marginally competitive with coal fired cycling power plants and gas turbines for peaking power generation.

The Role of Pre-Game Learning Attitude in the Prediction to Competitive Anxiety, Perceived Utility of Pre-Game Learning of Game, and Gameplay Interest

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hong, Jon-Chao; Hwang, Ming-Yueh; Liu, Yeu-Ting; Lin, Pei-Hsin; Chen, Yi-Ling

2016-01-01

Educational games can be viewed in two ways, "learning to play" or "playing to learn." The Chinese Idiom String Up Game was specifically designed to examine the effect of "learning to play" on the interrelatedness of players' gameplay interest, competitive anxiety, and perceived utility of pre-game learning (PUPGL).…

How did market competition affect outpatient utilization under the diagnosis-related group-based payment system?

PubMed

Kim, Seung Ju; Park, Eun-Cheol; Kim, Sun Jung; Han, Kyu-Tae; Jang, Sung-In

2017-06-01

Although competition is known to affect quality of care, less is known about the effects of competition on outpatient health service utilization under the diagnosis-related group payment system. This study aimed to evaluate these effects and assess differences before and after hospitalization in South Korea. Population-based retrospective observational study. We used two data set including outpatient data and hospitalization data from National Health Claim data from 2011 to 2014. Participants who were admitted to the hospital for hemorrhoidectomy were included. A total of 804 884 hospitalizations were included in our analysis. The outcome variables included the costs associated with outpatient examinations and the number of outpatient visits within 30 days before and after hospitalization. High-competition areas were associated with lower pre-surgery examination costs (rate ratio [RR]: 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.88-0.89) and fewer outpatient visits before hospitalization (RR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.98-0.99) as well as after hospitalization compared with moderate-competition areas. Our study reveals that outpatient health service utilization is affected by the degree of market competition. Future evaluations of hospital performance should consider external factors such as market structure and hospital location. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

Competitive Intelligence and Social Advantage.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davenport, Elisabeth; Cronin, Blaise

1994-01-01

Presents an overview of issues concerning civilian competitive intelligence (CI). Topics discussed include competitive advantage in academic and research environments; public domain information and libraries; covert and overt competitive intelligence; data diversity; use of the Internet; cooperative intelligence; and implications for library and…

Asymmetric competition impacts evolutionary rescue in a changing environment.

PubMed

Van Den Elzen, Courtney L; Kleynhans, Elizabeth J; Otto, Sarah P

2017-06-28

Interspecific competition can strongly influence the evolutionary response of a species to a changing environment, impacting the chance that the species survives or goes extinct. Previous work has shown that when two species compete for a temporally shifting resource distribution, the species lagging behind the resource peak is the first to go extinct due to competitive exclusion. However, this work assumed symmetrically distributed resources and competition. Asymmetries can generate differences between species in population sizes, genetic variation and trait means. We show that asymmetric resource availability or competition can facilitate coexistence and even occasionally cause the leading species to go extinct first. Surprisingly, we also find cases where traits evolve in the opposite direction to the changing environment because of a 'vacuum of competitive release' created when the lagging species declines in number. Thus, the species exhibiting the slowest rate of trait evolution is not always the most likely to go extinct in a changing environment. Our results demonstrate that the extent to which species appear to be tracking environmental change and the extent to which they are preadapted to that change may not necessarily determine which species will be the winners and which will be the losers in a rapidly changing world. © 2017 The Author(s).

Debt swapping as a tool for economic and social stabilization in Russia's closed nuclear cities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

JL Fuller; KM Leek

2000-03-08

The magnitude of Russian foreign debt, both official bilateral and commercial, compounded by collapse of the Russian economic system, is an obstacle in preventing the Russian Federation from effectively increasing the domestic priority of drawing down its nuclear weapons complex and providing a healthy, competitive environment to its nuclear cities. Debt-for-nature swaps, introduced in the early 1980s, provide debtor nations with a means of converting a portion of foreign debt into local currency, often at steep discounts, to use for purposes such as environmental protection that serve both a domestic and international need. This paper presents the debt-for-nature concept asmore » a model for providing an infusion of funds to further U.S. and international nonproliferation objectives to help stabilize Russian closed city economic conditions through direct work on proliferation problems and remediation of the environment. A specific proposal is presented to demonstrate the utility and efficacy of the dept swap concept through initial collaboration with the city administration of Ozersk. The purpose of the proposal is to facilitate making Ozersk a safe, healthy competitive city, providing useful employment for its scientists and population and converting its superior infrastructure into productive activities.« less

Management of busbar costs and spending tradeoffs for the transition to competitive markets in electricity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Corio, M.R.; Boyd, G.

Competition is changing the fundamental basis for doing business in the electricity generation market. As the market moves toward competitive market conditions, electricity will be viewed increasingly as a commodity--not only supplied to customers within a utility`s service area, but brokered and marketed outside its area as well. With movement toward retail wheeling being considered in California, Michigan, and New York, it may soon become a reality as well. This means that a utility can no longer feel secure as the monopoly supplier of electricity within its own franchise area. To remain the main supplier in its current service areamore » and compete for customers in other service areas, utilities will need to understand and examine all the components of ``busbar costs`` at its generating units. As competition drives the market to marginal costs, generating units with costs exceeding the market clearing price for electricity may soon have a limited role in the generation market. As the industry evolves, competition in the marketplace will force uneconomic plants to reduce costs or go out of business. This paper discusses results of studies addressing the evaluation of cost effectiveness, benchmarking of cost-efficiency, and development of marginal cost curves for busbar costs based on the development and aggregation of the three key measures which determine the cost and level of output (generation): (1) reliability; (2) heat rate; and (3) planned outage factor.« less

Test Methods for Robot Agility in Manufacturing.

PubMed

Downs, Anthony; Harrison, William; Schlenoff, Craig

2016-01-01

The paper aims to define and describe test methods and metrics to assess industrial robot system agility in both simulation and in reality. The paper describes test methods and associated quantitative and qualitative metrics for assessing robot system efficiency and effectiveness which can then be used for the assessment of system agility. The paper describes how the test methods were implemented in a simulation environment and real world environment. It also shows how the metrics are measured and assessed as they would be in a future competition. The test methods described in this paper will push forward the state of the art in software agility for manufacturing robots, allowing small and medium manufacturers to better utilize robotic systems. The paper fulfills the identified need for standard test methods to measure and allow for improvement in software agility for manufacturing robots.

[Minimally invasive surgery and robotic surgery: surgery 4.0?].

PubMed

Feußner, H; Wilhelm, D

2016-03-01

Surgery can only maintain its role in a highly competitive environment if results are continuously improved, accompanied by further reduction of the interventional trauma for patients and with justifiable costs. Significant impulse to achieve this goal was expected from minimally invasive surgery and, in particular, robotic surgery; however, a real breakthrough has not yet been achieved. Accordingly, the new strategic approach of cognitive surgery is required to optimize the provision of surgical treatment. A full scale integration of all modules utilized in the operating room (OR) into a comprehensive network and the development of systems with technical cognition are needed to upgrade the current technical environment passively controlled by the surgeon into an active collaborative support system (surgery 4.0). Only then can the true potential of minimally invasive surgery and robotic surgery be exploited.

Local Competition-Based Superpixel Segmentation Algorithm in Remote Sensing.

PubMed

Liu, Jiayin; Tang, Zhenmin; Cui, Ying; Wu, Guoxing

2017-06-12

Remote sensing technologies have been widely applied in urban environments' monitoring, synthesis and modeling. Incorporating spatial information in perceptually coherent regions, superpixel-based approaches can effectively eliminate the "salt and pepper" phenomenon which is common in pixel-wise approaches. Compared with fixed-size windows, superpixels have adaptive sizes and shapes for different spatial structures. Moreover, superpixel-based algorithms can significantly improve computational efficiency owing to the greatly reduced number of image primitives. Hence, the superpixel algorithm, as a preprocessing technique, is more and more popularly used in remote sensing and many other fields. In this paper, we propose a superpixel segmentation algorithm called Superpixel Segmentation with Local Competition (SSLC), which utilizes a local competition mechanism to construct energy terms and label pixels. The local competition mechanism leads to energy terms locality and relativity, and thus, the proposed algorithm is less sensitive to the diversity of image content and scene layout. Consequently, SSLC could achieve consistent performance in different image regions. In addition, the Probability Density Function (PDF), which is estimated by Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) with the Gaussian kernel, is introduced to describe the color distribution of superpixels as a more sophisticated and accurate measure. To reduce computational complexity, a boundary optimization framework is introduced to only handle boundary pixels instead of the whole image. We conduct experiments to benchmark the proposed algorithm with the other state-of-the-art ones on the Berkeley Segmentation Dataset (BSD) and remote sensing images. Results demonstrate that the SSLC algorithm yields the best overall performance, while the computation time-efficiency is still competitive.

Thermo-economic analysis of a trigeneration HCPVT power plant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selviaridis, Angelos; Burg, Brian R.; Wallerand, Anna Sophia; Maréchal, François; Michel, Bruno

2015-09-01

The increasing need for electricity and heat in a growing global economy must be combined with CO2 emissions reduction, in order to limit the human influence on the environment. This calls for energy-efficient and cost-competitive renewable energy systems that are able to satisfy both pressing needs. A High-Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system is a cogeneration concept that shows promising potential in delivering electricity and heat in an efficient and cost-competitive manner. This study investigates the transient behavior of the HCPVT system and presents a thermo-economic analysis of a MW-scale trigeneration (electricity, heating and cooling) power plant. Transient simulations show a fast dynamic response of the system which results in short heat-up intervals, maximizing heat recuperation throughout the day. Despite suboptimal coupling between demand and supply, partial heat utilization throughout the year and low COP of commercially available devices for the conversion of heat into cooling, the thermo-economic analysis shows promising economic behavior, with a levelized cost of electricity close to current retail prices.

40 CFR 30.43 - Competition.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS Post-Award Requirements Procurement Standards § 30.43 Competition. All... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Competition. 30.43 Section 30.43... free competition. The recipient shall be alert to organizational conflicts of interest as well as...

Direct Versus Indirect Competition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Billing, John

Competition in sport and physical education programs has been used to motivate the learning of skills, increase physical fitness, and to create environments purportedly conducive to the development of desirable personality qualities. However, the way in which competition is conceptualized is of great importance. In direct competition, achievement…

40 CFR 35.661 - Competitive process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... training in source reduction techniques. Such training may be provided through local engineering schools or... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Competitive process. 35.661 Section 35.661 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY GRANTS AND OTHER FEDERAL ASSISTANCE...

Competitiveness facets and sensation seeking as predictors of problem gambling among a sample of university student gamblers.

PubMed

Harris, Nicholas; Newby, Jennifer; Klein, Rupert G

2015-06-01

Understanding the factors that contribute to problem gambling (PG) is imperative. Individual differences in sensation seeking (SS), as measured by the Sensation Seeking Scale Form (SSS-V), have been found to be predictive of PG among university student samples. However, what is less clear, is if the four SSS-V subscales capture unique facets of SS that are particularly predictive of PG. Much less studied than SS, competitiveness has also been found to be predictive of PG. The Competitiveness Orientation Measure (COM) is a newly developed measure of competitiveness, comprising of four facets. The main purpose of the current study was to examine if these four facets of competitiveness predicted variance in PG over and above the variance predicted by the four SSS-V subscales. Participants included 158 university student gamblers. Sequential regression analysis showed that after accounting for gender, age, and the four SSS-V subscales the only facet of the COM found to be a significant predictor of PG severity was Dominant Competitiveness. Dominant Competitiveness predicted an additional 11% of PG severity. These results provide support for the Dominant Competitiveness subscale of the COM as having utility in predicting PG over and above the predictive utility of the SSS-V subscales. Practical implications for the current findings are discussed.

Enhancing the Teaching of Introductory Economics with a Team-Based, Multi-Section Competition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beaudin, Laura; Berdiev, Aziz N.; Kaminaga, Allison Shwachman; Mirmirani, Sam; Tebaldi, Edinaldo

2017-01-01

The authors describe a unique approach to enhancing student learning at the introductory economics level that utilizes a multi-section, team-based competition. The competition is structured to supplement learning throughout the entire introductory course. Student teams are presented with current economic issues, trends, or events, and use economic…

Appearance- and Competition-Focused Performance Goals: Examining Their Links with Performance in Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warburton, Victoria; Spray, Christopher

2014-01-01

We examined the utility of distinguishing between appearance- and competition-focused approach and avoidance performance goals to our understanding of motivation in physical education. Four achievement goals were tested composed of approach-avoidance and appearance-competition components. Three hundred and two pupils, aged 11-14 years, completed…

Knowledge Management and the Competitive Strategy of the Firm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halawi, Leila A.; McCarthy, Richard V.; Aronson, Jay E.

2006-01-01

Purpose: Knowledge management (KM) has emerged as a strategy to improve organizational competitiveness. Our purpose is to identify the relationship between KM and the firm's competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach: We review the existing literature on KM and strategy formulation. We utilize the resource-based view approach as a lens for…

Large, horizontal-axis wind turbines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Linscott, B. S.; Perkins, P.; Dennett, J. T.

1984-01-01

Development of the technology for safe, reliable, environmentally acceptable large wind turbines that have the potential to generate a significant amount of electricity at costs competitive with conventional electric generating systems are presented. In addition, these large wind turbines must be fully compatible with electric utility operations and interface requirements. There are several ongoing large wind system development projects and applied research efforts directed toward meeting the technology requirements for utility applications. Detailed information on these projects is provided. The Mod-O research facility and current applied research effort in aerodynamics, structural dynamics and aeroelasticity, composite and hybrid composite materials, and multiple system interaction are described. A chronology of component research and technology development for large, horizontal axis wind turbines is presented. Wind characteristics, wind turbine economics, and the impact of wind turbines on the environment are reported. The need for continued wind turbine research and technology development is explored. Over 40 references are sited and a bibliography is included.

Feeling of competition may raise utility efficiency

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1983-05-01

In an attempt to provide the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with a means of encouragement to regulated but non-competitive utilities to offer their customers the lowest possible rates, the Resources Consulting Group Inc. (RCG) devised an incentive regulation program that would award payments to those utilities that are able to reduce the level of and growth in rates. The program has the advantages of promoting the minimization of costs better than traditional regulation does; cost cuts are encouraged in consideration of both long- and short-term resource production and utilization; and ratepayers are able to achieve the greatest possible sharemore » of economic benefits associated with improved performance.« less

40 CFR 35.712 - Competitive process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Competitive process. 35.712 Section 35... Monitoring (section 28) § 35.712 Competitive process. EPA will award Toxic Substances Control Act Compliance Monitoring grants to Tribes or Intertribal Consortia through a competitive process in accordance with...

Across a macro-ecological gradient forest competition is strongest at the most productive sites

PubMed Central

Prior, Lynda D.; Bowman, David M. J. S.

2014-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that the effect of forest basal area on tree growth interacts with macro-ecological gradients of primary productivity, using a large dataset of eucalypt tree growth collected across temperate and sub- tropical mesic Australia. To do this, we derived an index of inter-tree competition based on stand basal area (stand BA) relative to the climatically determined potential basal area. Using linear mixed effects modeling, we found that the main effects of climatic productivity, tree size, and competition explained 26.5% of the deviance in individual tree growth, but adding interactions to the model could explain a further 8.9%. The effect of competition on growth interacts with the gradient of climatic productivity, with negligible effect of competition in low productivity environments, but marked negative effects at the most productive sites. We also found a positive interaction between tree size and stand BA, which was most pronounced in the most productive sites. We interpret these patterns as reflecting intense competition for light amongst maturing trees on more productive sites, and below ground moisture limitation at low productivity sites, which results in open stands with little competition for light. These trends are consistent with the life history and stand development of eucalypt forests: in cool moist environments, light is the most limiting resource, resulting in size-asymmetric competition, while in hot, low rainfall environments are open forests with little competition for light but where the amount of tree regeneration is limited by water availability. PMID:24926304

Prefrontal neurons represent winning and losing during competitive video shooting games between monkeys.

PubMed

Hosokawa, Takayuki; Watanabe, Masataka

2012-05-30

Humans and animals must work to support their survival and reproductive needs. Because resources are limited in the natural environment, competition is inevitable, and competing successfully is vitally important. However, the neuronal mechanisms of competitive behavior are poorly studied. We examined whether neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) showed response sensitivity related to a competitive game. In this study, monkeys played a video shooting game, either competing with another monkey or the computer, or playing alone without a rival. Monkeys performed more quickly and more accurately in the competitive than in the noncompetitive games, indicating that they were more motivated in the competitive than in the noncompetitive games. LPFC neurons showed differential activity between the competitive and noncompetitive games showing winning- and losing-related activity. Furthermore, activities of prefrontal neurons differed depending on whether the competition was between monkeys or between the monkey and the computer. These results indicate that LPFC neurons may play an important role in monitoring the outcome of competition and enabling animals to adapt their behavior to increase their chances of obtaining a reward in a socially interactive environment.

Commercial, environmental and legislative factors that influence the implementation of fuel cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serfass, Jeffrey A.; Bergman, Michael K.; Rodenhiser, Wendy

1994-04-01

Fuel cells and other advanced electric-generation technologies have not experienced a record of successful commercialization efforts. To lower costs for these technologies, it requires substantial production volumes with a significant investment in manufacturing facilities, all dependent on developer confidence in the ultimate market. Yet, market acceptance by buyers requires an adequate demonstration of technical performance and an assurance that these lower costs can be reached. In addition to this fundamental commercialization challenge, there are significant external factors that are greatly influencing the market's (utility's) future implementation of new alternative energy-generating technologies. The factor that has possibly the greatest impact today is the public demand for environmentally benign and renewable resource technologies. There is a growing trend of involvement by consumers, regulators and intervenors in the business and utility industry that is shifting the economic playing field by which industries make resource decisions. Concerns over air pollution, global warming, acid precipitation, depletion of the ozone layer and the hazards of electromagnetic fields (EMF) from power lines, have all led to more stringent regulations and environmental mandates. The utility business environment itself is rapidly changing. Higher public expectations from energy providers and increasing competition are leading to major changes in the American utility sector. Competitive requirements to reduce the cost of utility service is leading to business decisions that provide both opportunities and problems for increased use of alternative energy-generating technologies, like fuel cells, and/or renewables, such as wind and solar photovoltaics. Bringing new energy technologies to market is very expensive and this financial burden cannot be shouldered by the market, manufacturers or federal government alone. Further, for the market to assume a key position in early commercialization, the technology must offer a strategic and competitive advantage to early buyers. In order to break this problematic cycle of investments depending on market assurance and of market reluctance until cost goals are met, fresh approaches must be sought to address the unique challenges of each commercialization effort. Market-driven collaborations in which potential buyers, such as electric utilities, work together to define and implement a commercialization program that meets the market's requirements, with one or more suppliers, and with the federal government as a catalyst, provide perhaps the best opportunity for further commercialization of renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies. The key is that the market - not government agencies - determines the objectives and manages the resulting program. Two examples of such collaborations, the Fuel Cell Commercialization Group (FCCG) and the Utility PhotoVoltaic Group (UPVG), have so far proven to be successful in their new technology commercialization attempts.

Competitiveness and the Process of Co-adaptation in Team Sport Performance.

PubMed

Passos, Pedro; Araújo, Duarte; Davids, Keith

2016-01-01

An evolutionary psycho-biological perspective on competitiveness dynamics is presented, focusing on continuous behavioral co-adaptations to constraints that arise in performance environments. We suggest that an athlete's behavioral dynamics are constrained by circumstances of competing for the availability of resources, which once obtained offer possibilities for performance success. This defines the influence of the athlete-environment relationship on competitiveness. Constraining factors in performance include proximity to target areas in team sports and the number of other competitors in a location. By pushing the athlete beyond existing limits, competitiveness enhances opportunities for co-adaptation, innovation and creativity, which can lead individuals toward different performance solutions to achieve the same performance goal. Underpinned by an ecological dynamics framework we examine whether competitiveness is a crucial feature to succeed in team sports. Our focus is on intra-team competitiveness, concerning the capacity of individuals within a team to become perceptually attuned to affordances in a given performance context which can increase their likelihood of success. This conceptualization implies a re-consideration of the concept of competitiveness, not as an inherited trait or entity to be acquired, but rather theorizing it as a functional performer-environment relationship that needs to be explored, developed, enhanced and maintained in team games training programs.

Competitiveness and the Process of Co-adaptation in Team Sport Performance

PubMed Central

Passos, Pedro; Araújo, Duarte; Davids, Keith

2016-01-01

An evolutionary psycho-biological perspective on competitiveness dynamics is presented, focusing on continuous behavioral co-adaptations to constraints that arise in performance environments. We suggest that an athlete’s behavioral dynamics are constrained by circumstances of competing for the availability of resources, which once obtained offer possibilities for performance success. This defines the influence of the athlete-environment relationship on competitiveness. Constraining factors in performance include proximity to target areas in team sports and the number of other competitors in a location. By pushing the athlete beyond existing limits, competitiveness enhances opportunities for co-adaptation, innovation and creativity, which can lead individuals toward different performance solutions to achieve the same performance goal. Underpinned by an ecological dynamics framework we examine whether competitiveness is a crucial feature to succeed in team sports. Our focus is on intra-team competitiveness, concerning the capacity of individuals within a team to become perceptually attuned to affordances in a given performance context which can increase their likelihood of success. This conceptualization implies a re-consideration of the concept of competitiveness, not as an inherited trait or entity to be acquired, but rather theorizing it as a functional performer-environment relationship that needs to be explored, developed, enhanced and maintained in team games training programs. PMID:27777565

Comprehensive safety management and assessment at rugby football competitions.

PubMed

Tajima, T; Chosa, E; Kawahara, K; Nakamura, Y; Yoshikawa, D; Yamaguchi, N; Kashiwagi, T

2014-11-01

The present study aims to improve medical systems by designing objective safety assessment criteria for rugby competitions. We evaluated 195 competitions between 2002 and 2011 using an original safety scale comprising the following sections: 1) competence of staff such as referees, medical attendants and match day doctor; 2) environment such as weather, wet bulb globe temperature and field conditions; and 3) emergency medical care systems at the competitions. Each section was subdivided into groups A, B and C according to good, normal or fair degrees of safety determined by combinations of the results.Overall safety was assessed as A, B and C for 110, 78 and 7 competitions, respectively. The assessments of individual major factors were mostly favorable for staff, but the environment and medical care systems were assessed as C in 25 and 70, respectively, of the 195 competitions. Medical management involves not having a match day doctor, but also comprehensive management including preventive factors and responses from the staff, environment and medical-care systems. 6 cases of severe injuries and accidents occurred between 2002 and 2011, which were observed in Grade A competition. These cases revealed better prognosis without obvious impairment, thus confirming the value of the present assessment scale. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

A customer oriented systematic framework to extract business strategy in Indian electricity services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Satapathy, Suchismita; Mishra, Pravudatta

2013-11-01

Competition in the electric service industry is highlighting the importance of a number of issues affecting the nature and quality of customer service. The quality of service(s) provided to electricity customers may be enhanced by competition, if doing so offers service suppliers a competitive advantage. On the other hand, service quality offered to some consumers could decline if utilities focus their attention on those customers most likely to exercise choice, while reducing effort and investment to serve customers less likely to choose alternatives. Service quality is defined as the way in which the utility interacts with and responds to the needs of its customers. To achieve maximum consumer satisfaction in electricity service, This paper has designed a framework by QFD by measuring service quality of electricity utility sector in ANN and also find interrelationship between these design requirements by ISM.

40 CFR 35.723 - Competitive process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Grants (pub.l. 105-276) § 35.723 Competitive process. EPA will award Tribal hazardous waste program grants to Tribes or Intertribal Consortia on a competitive basis in accordance with national program... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Competitive process. 35.723 Section 35...

Gene-Environment Interplay in the Link of Friends' and Nonfriends' Behaviors with Children's Social Reticence in a Competitive Situation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guimond, Fanny-Alexandra; Brendgen, Mara; Vitaro, Frank; Forget-Dubois, Nadine; Dionne, Ginette; Tremblay, Richard E.; Boivin, Michel

2014-01-01

This study used a genetically informed design to assess the effects of friends' and nonfriends' reticent and dominant behaviors on children's observed social reticence in a competitive situation. Potential gene-environment correlations (rGE) and gene-environment interactions (GxE) in the link between (a) friends' and…

Emulation of Equal Open Access and Competition Creation in the Wireline Telecommunications Local and Last Mile Market Segments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Epps, Daniel L.

2013-01-01

Expanded telecommunications was deemed a serious need for end users. The "Local Market" and "Last Mile" market segments have largely consolidated into "natural utilities". Competition and access problems occur if new providers enter the local market and desire competitive access and service to end users. Local and…

Required reading

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1994-06-15

This article describes competition in the electric utility industry. A brief history of deregulation in other industries is given, and some recommendations are made for transition to competition in electric power. Implications for financial impacts on the industry are presented.

Proceedings of the American Power Conference. Volume 58-I

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McBride, A.E.

1996-10-01

This is volume 58-I of the proceedings of the American Power Conference, 1996, Technology for Competition and Globalization. The topics of the papers include power plant DC issues; cost of environmental compliance; advanced coal systems -- environmental performance; technology for competition in dispersed generation; superconductivity technologies for electric utility applications; power generation trends and challenges in China; aging in nuclear power plants; innovative and competitive repowering options; structural examinations, modifications and repairs; electric load forecasting; distribution planning; EMF effects; fuzzy logic and neural networks for power plant applications; electrokinetic decontamination of soils; integrated gasification combined cycle; advances in fusion; coolingmore » towers; relays; plant controls; flue gas desulfurization; waste product utilization; and improved technologies.« less

Resource utilization and trophic niche width in sandy beach macrobenthos from an oligotrophic coast

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ortega-Cisneros, Kelly; de Lecea, Ander M.; Smit, Albertus J.; Schoeman, David S.

2017-01-01

One of the paradigms underlying sandy beach ecology is the overriding control by physical processes; thus, biological interactions (i.e. food availability, competition and predation) are believed to play a role structuring macrofaunal communities only in benign habitats such as dissipative beaches. Moreover, sandy beaches are characterized by low in-situ productivity, so their food webs rely heavily on marine inputs. Studies have shown that estuarine organic matter plays a key role in influencing the dynamics of marine ecosystems. However, very few studies have tested the role of estuarine input on sandy beaches. Here, we aim to determine the impact of estuarine input on the food web of a sandy beach macrobenthic community. To this end, particulate organic matter (POM) samples from the marine environment and the estuary, as well as macrobenthic samples from the beach, were analysed for their stable isotope (SI) signature. Our results indicated that the POM SI signatures were not different along the beach, but differences were recorded between marine and estuarine sources. Bayesian mixing models indicated that the organisms did not make use of the estuarine POM at the beginning of the wet season, but relied more heavily on this resource towards the end of the wet season. This leads to the conclusion that changes in estuarine flow throughout the wet season can impact the trophic structure of macrobenthos communities, confirming a link between lotic and marine communities. Moreover, SI signatures suggest that the species collected here exhibit overlapping trophic niches, indicating high level of inter-specific competition. This highlights that species in low-productivity areas, such as the one studied here, can experience high levels of competition even in physically controlled environments such as sandy beaches.

Native UCP1 displays simple competitive kinetics between the regulators purine nucleotides and fatty acids.

PubMed

Shabalina, Irina G; Jacobsson, Anders; Cannon, Barbara; Nedergaard, Jan

2004-09-10

Elucidation of the regulation of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) activity in its native environment, i.e. the inner membrane of brown-fat mitochondria, has been hampered by the presence of UCP1-independent, quantitatively unresolved effects of investigated regulators on the brown-fat mitochondria themselves. Here we have utilized the availability of UCP1-ablated mice to dissect UCP1-dependent and UCP1-independent effects of regulators. Using a complex-I-linked substrate (pyruvate), we found that UCP1 can mediate a 4-fold increase in thermogenesis when stimulated with the classical positive regulator fatty acids (oleate). After demonstrating that the fatty acids act in their free form, we found that UCP1 increased fatty acid sensitivity approximately 30-fold (as compared with the 1.5-fold increase reported earlier based on nominal fatty acid values). By identifying the UCP1-mediated fraction of the response, we could conclude that the interaction between purine nucleotides (GDP) and fatty acids (oleate) unexpectedly displayed simple competitive kinetics. In GDP-inhibited mitochondria, oleate apparently acted as an activator. However, only a model in which UCP1 is inherently active (i.e."activating" fatty acids cannot be included in the model), where GDP functions as an inhibitor with a K(m) of 0.05 mm, and where oleate functions as a competitive antagonist for the GDP effect (with a K(i) of 5 nm) can fit all of the experimental data. We conclude that, when examined in its native environment, UCP1 functions as a proton (equivalent) carrier in the absence of exogenous or endogenous fatty acids.

The Optimal Lateral Root Branching Density for Maize Depends on Nitrogen and Phosphorus Availability1[C][W][OPEN

PubMed Central

Postma, Johannes Auke; Dathe, Annette; Lynch, Jonathan Paul

2014-01-01

Observed phenotypic variation in the lateral root branching density (LRBD) in maize (Zea mays) is large (1–41 cm−1 major axis [i.e. brace, crown, seminal, and primary roots]), suggesting that LRBD has varying utility and tradeoffs in specific environments. Using the functional-structural plant model SimRoot, we simulated the three-dimensional development of maize root architectures with varying LRBD and quantified nitrate and phosphorus uptake, root competition, and whole-plant carbon balances in soils varying in the availability of these nutrients. Sparsely spaced (less than 7 branches cm−1), long laterals were optimal for nitrate acquisition, while densely spaced (more than 9 branches cm−1), short laterals were optimal for phosphorus acquisition. The nitrate results are mostly explained by the strong competition between lateral roots for nitrate, which causes increasing LRBD to decrease the uptake per unit root length, while the carbon budgets of the plant do not permit greater total root length (i.e. individual roots in the high-LRBD plants stay shorter). Competition and carbon limitations for growth play less of a role for phosphorus uptake, and consequently increasing LRBD results in greater root length and uptake. We conclude that the optimal LRBD depends on the relative availability of nitrate (a mobile soil resource) and phosphorus (an immobile soil resource) and is greater in environments with greater carbon fixation. The median LRBD reported in several field screens was 6 branches cm−1, suggesting that most genotypes have an LRBD that balances the acquisition of both nutrients. LRBD merits additional investigation as a potential breeding target for greater nutrient acquisition. PMID:24850860

An Exploration of Open Innovation: An Environmental Scanning Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elci, Nuray

2009-01-01

Globalization and direction toward a knowledge economy, along with an economic downturn, is creating a competitive environment that calls for corporations to become more innovative. As the business environment becomes more competitive and dynamic, corporations are looking for new ways of achieving innovation. Open innovation is one approach that…

Novice Shooters With Lower Pre-shooting Alpha Power Have Better Performance During Competition in a Virtual Reality Scenario.

PubMed

Pereira, Michael; Argelaguet, Ferran; Millán, José Del R; Lécuyer, Anatole

2018-01-01

Competition changes the environment for athletes. The difficulty of training for such stressful events can lead to the well-known effect of "choking" under pressure, which prevents athletes from performing at their best level. To study the effect of competition on the human brain, we recorded pilot electroencephalography (EEG) data while novice shooters were immersed in a realistic virtual environment representing a shooting range. We found a differential between-subject effect of competition on mu (8-12 Hz) oscillatory activity during aiming; compared to training, the more the subject was able to desynchronize his mu rhythm during competition, the better was his shooting performance. Because this differential effect could not be explained by differences in simple measures of the kinematics and muscular activity, nor by the effect of competition or shooting performance per se , we interpret our results as evidence that mu desynchronization has a positive effect on performance during competition.

Novice Shooters With Lower Pre-shooting Alpha Power Have Better Performance During Competition in a Virtual Reality Scenario

PubMed Central

Pereira, Michael; Argelaguet, Ferran; Millán, José del R.; Lécuyer, Anatole

2018-01-01

Competition changes the environment for athletes. The difficulty of training for such stressful events can lead to the well-known effect of “choking” under pressure, which prevents athletes from performing at their best level. To study the effect of competition on the human brain, we recorded pilot electroencephalography (EEG) data while novice shooters were immersed in a realistic virtual environment representing a shooting range. We found a differential between-subject effect of competition on mu (8–12 Hz) oscillatory activity during aiming; compared to training, the more the subject was able to desynchronize his mu rhythm during competition, the better was his shooting performance. Because this differential effect could not be explained by differences in simple measures of the kinematics and muscular activity, nor by the effect of competition or shooting performance per se, we interpret our results as evidence that mu desynchronization has a positive effect on performance during competition.

Test Methods for Robot Agility in Manufacturing

PubMed Central

Downs, Anthony; Harrison, William; Schlenoff, Craig

2017-01-01

Purpose The paper aims to define and describe test methods and metrics to assess industrial robot system agility in both simulation and in reality. Design/methodology/approach The paper describes test methods and associated quantitative and qualitative metrics for assessing robot system efficiency and effectiveness which can then be used for the assessment of system agility. Findings The paper describes how the test methods were implemented in a simulation environment and real world environment. It also shows how the metrics are measured and assessed as they would be in a future competition. Practical Implications The test methods described in this paper will push forward the state of the art in software agility for manufacturing robots, allowing small and medium manufacturers to better utilize robotic systems. Originality / value The paper fulfills the identified need for standard test methods to measure and allow for improvement in software agility for manufacturing robots. PMID:28203034

The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Unmanned Aircraft System Service Capabilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauer, Jeff

2007-01-01

Over 60 years of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) expertise at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center are being leveraged to provide capability and expertise to the international UAS community. The DFRC brings together technical experts, UAS, and an operational environment to provide government and industry a broad capability to conduct research, perform operations, and mature systems, sensors, and regulation. The cornerstone of this effort is the acquisition of both a Global Hawk (Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, California) and Predator B (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., San Diego, California) unmanned aircraft system (UAS). In addition, a test range for small UAS will allow developers to conduct research and development flights without the need to obtain approval from civil authorities. Finally, experts are available to government and industry to provide safety assessments in support of operations in civil airspace. These services will allow developers to utilize limited resources to their maximum capability in a highly competitive environment.

The power of competition: Effects of social motivation on attention, sustained physical effort, and learning.

PubMed

DiMenichi, Brynne C; Tricomi, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

Competition has often been implicated as a means to improve effort-based learning and attention. Two experiments examined the effects of competition on effort and memory. In Experiment 1, participants completed a physical effort task in which they were rewarded for winning an overall percentage, or for winning a competition they believed was against another player. In Experiment 2, participants completed a memory task in which they were rewarded for remembering an overall percentage of shapes, or more shapes than a "competitor." We found that, in the physical effort task, participants demonstrated faster reaction times (RTs)-a previous indicator of increased attention-in the competitive environment. Moreover, individual differences predicted the salience of competition's effect. Furthermore, male participants showed faster RTs and greater sustained effort as a result of a competitive environment, suggesting that males may be more affected by competition in physical effort tasks. However, in Experiment 2, participants remembered fewer shapes when competing, and later recalled less of these shapes during a post-test, suggesting that competition was harmful in our memory task. The different results from these two experiments suggest that competition can improve attention in a physical effort task, yet caution the use of competition in memory tasks.

PURPA: The spur to competition and utility restructuring

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hirsh, R.F.

Without discussing the merits or deficiencies of the arguments made by contesting parties, this article explores the history of PURPA and its intended and unintended consequences. The article will serve as a background for discussion of the repeal or reform of PURPA so that participants in the debate will understand the profound consequences of this important law. Most notably, PURPA helped establish the free-market, competitive principles that many people hope to extend further in the utility system.

Tree growth and competition in an old-growth Picea abies forest of boreal Sweden: influence of tree spatial patterning

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fraver, Shawn; D'Amato, Anthony W.; Bradford, John B.; Jonsson, Bengt Gunnar; Jönsson, Mari; Esseen, Per-Anders

2013-01-01

Question: What factors best characterize tree competitive environments in this structurally diverse old-growth forest, and do these factors vary spatially within and among stands? Location: Old-growth Picea abies forest of boreal Sweden. Methods: Using long-term, mapped permanent plot data augmented with dendrochronological analyses, we evaluated the effect of neighbourhood competition on focal tree growth by means of standard competition indices, each modified to include various metrics of trees size, neighbour mortality weighting (for neighbours that died during the inventory period), and within-neighbourhood tree clustering. Candidate models were evaluated using mixed-model linear regression analyses, with mean basal area increment as the response variable. We then analysed stand-level spatial patterns of competition indices and growth rates (via kriging) to determine if the relationship between these patterns could further elucidate factors influencing tree growth. Results: Inter-tree competition clearly affected growth rates, with crown volume being the size metric most strongly influencing the neighbourhood competitive environment. Including neighbour tree mortality weightings in models only slightly improved descriptions of competitive interactions. Although the within-neighbourhood clustering index did not improve model predictions, competition intensity was influenced by the underlying stand-level tree spatial arrangement: stand-level clustering locally intensified competition and reduced tree growth, whereas in the absence of such clustering, inter-tree competition played a lesser role in constraining tree growth. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that competition continues to influence forest processes and structures in an old-growth system that has not experienced major disturbances for at least two centuries. The finding that the underlying tree spatial pattern influenced the competitive environment suggests caution in interpreting traditional tree competition studies, in which tree spatial patterning is typically not taken into account. Our findings highlight the importance of forest structure – particularly the spatial arrangement of trees – in regulating inter-tree competition and growth in structurally diverse forests, and they provide insight into the causes and consequences of heterogeneity in this old-growth system.

Protecting genomic data analytics in the cloud: state of the art and opportunities.

PubMed

Tang, Haixu; Jiang, Xiaoqian; Wang, Xiaofeng; Wang, Shuang; Sofia, Heidi; Fox, Dov; Lauter, Kristin; Malin, Bradley; Telenti, Amalio; Xiong, Li; Ohno-Machado, Lucila

2016-10-13

The outsourcing of genomic data into public cloud computing settings raises concerns over privacy and security. Significant advancements in secure computation methods have emerged over the past several years, but such techniques need to be rigorously evaluated for their ability to support the analysis of human genomic data in an efficient and cost-effective manner. With respect to public cloud environments, there are concerns about the inadvertent exposure of human genomic data to unauthorized users. In analyses involving multiple institutions, there is additional concern about data being used beyond agreed research scope and being prcoessed in untrused computational environments, which may not satisfy institutional policies. To systematically investigate these issues, the NIH-funded National Center for Biomedical Computing iDASH (integrating Data for Analysis, 'anonymization' and SHaring) hosted the second Critical Assessment of Data Privacy and Protection competition to assess the capacity of cryptographic technologies for protecting computation over human genomes in the cloud and promoting cross-institutional collaboration. Data scientists were challenged to design and engineer practical algorithms for secure outsourcing of genome computation tasks in working software, whereby analyses are performed only on encrypted data. They were also challenged to develop approaches to enable secure collaboration on data from genomic studies generated by multiple organizations (e.g., medical centers) to jointly compute aggregate statistics without sharing individual-level records. The results of the competition indicated that secure computation techniques can enable comparative analysis of human genomes, but greater efficiency (in terms of compute time and memory utilization) are needed before they are sufficiently practical for real world environments.

40 CFR 1045.620 - What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 34 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition? 1045.620 Section 1045.620 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR POLLUTION CONTROLS CONTROL OF EMISSIONS FROM SPARK-IGNITION PROPULSION...

40 CFR 1045.620 - What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 34 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition? 1045.620 Section 1045.620 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR POLLUTION CONTROLS CONTROL OF EMISSIONS FROM SPARK-IGNITION PROPULSION...

40 CFR 1045.620 - What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 33 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition? 1045.620 Section 1045.620 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR POLLUTION CONTROLS CONTROL OF EMISSIONS FROM SPARK-IGNITION PROPULSION...

40 CFR 1045.620 - What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 33 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition? 1045.620 Section 1045.620 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR POLLUTION CONTROLS CONTROL OF EMISSIONS FROM SPARK-IGNITION PROPULSION...

40 CFR 1045.620 - What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 32 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What are the provisions for exempting engines used solely for competition? 1045.620 Section 1045.620 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR POLLUTION CONTROLS CONTROL OF EMISSIONS FROM SPARK-IGNITION PROPULSION...

Influence of School Environment on Student Lunch Participation and Competitive Food Sales

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Litchfield, Ruth E.; Wenz, Betsy

2011-01-01

Purpose/Objectives: The school nutrition environment includes food policy and practices, advertising, and presence of competitive foods (CF). CF provide schools with revenue; however, CF decrease National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation and reimbursement as well as the nutrient density of children's diets. Local wellness policies (LWPs)…

Evaluation, Support and Promotion of Specialists' Competitiveness Development in Modern Enterprise as Learning Organization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katane, Irena; Kristovska, Ineta; Vjatere, Gita; Katans, Edgars

2015-01-01

The process of globalization and the changeability of environment nowadays demand that society ensure sustainability for itself and its lifewide environment. Therefore nowadays the paradigm of personality's and specialist's competitiveness is changing. The old paradigm is substituted by a set of new viewpoints and concepts. The issue of ensuring…

Relative importance of competition and plant-soil feedback, their synergy, context dependency and implications for coexistence.

PubMed

Lekberg, Ylva; Bever, James D; Bunn, Rebecca A; Callaway, Ragan M; Hart, Miranda M; Kivlin, Stephanie N; Klironomos, John; Larkin, Beau G; Maron, John L; Reinhart, Kurt O; Remke, Michael; van der Putten, Wim H

2018-06-12

Plants interact simultaneously with each other and with soil biota, yet the relative importance of competition vs. plant-soil feedback (PSF) on plant performance is poorly understood. Using a meta-analysis of 38 published studies and 150 plant species, we show that effects of interspecific competition (either growing plants with a competitor or singly, or comparing inter- vs. intraspecific competition) and PSF (comparing home vs. away soil, live vs. sterile soil, or control vs. fungicide-treated soil) depended on treatments but were predominantly negative, broadly comparable in magnitude, and additive or synergistic. Stronger competitors experienced more negative PSF than weaker competitors when controlling for density (inter- to intraspecific competition), suggesting that PSF could prevent competitive dominance and promote coexistence. When competition was measured against plants growing singly, the strength of competition overwhelmed PSF, indicating that the relative importance of PSF may depend not only on neighbour identity but also density. We evaluate how competition and PSFs might interact across resource gradients; PSF will likely strengthen competitive interactions in high resource environments and enhance facilitative interactions in low-resource environments. Finally, we provide a framework for filling key knowledge gaps and advancing our understanding of how these biotic interactions influence community structure. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Limiting similarity of competitive species and demographic stochasticity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Xiu-Deng; Deng, Ling-Ling; Qiang, Wei-Ya; Cressman, Ross; Tao, Yi

2017-04-01

The limiting similarity of competitive species and its relationship with the competitive exclusion principle is still one of the most important concepts in ecology. In the 1970s, May [R. M. May, Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems (Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1973)] developed a concise theoretical framework to investigate the limiting similarity of competitive species. His theoretical results show that no limiting similarity threshold of competitive species can be identified in the deterministic model system whereby species more similar than this threshold never coexist. Theoretically, for competitive species coexisting in an unvarying environment, deterministic interspecific interactions and demographic stochasticity can be considered two sides of a coin. To investigate how the "tension" between these two forces affects the coexistence of competing species, a simple two-species competitive system based only on May's model system is transformed into an equivalent replicator equation. The effect of demographic stochasticity on the system stability is measured by the expected drift of the Lyapunov function. Our main results show that the limiting similarity of competitive species should not be considered to be an absolute measure. Specifically, very similar competitive species should be able to coexist in an environment with a high productivity level but big differences between competitive species should be necessary in an ecosystem with a low productivity level.

The power of competition: Effects of social motivation on attention, sustained physical effort, and learning

PubMed Central

DiMenichi, Brynne C.; Tricomi, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

Competition has often been implicated as a means to improve effort-based learning and attention. Two experiments examined the effects of competition on effort and memory. In Experiment 1, participants completed a physical effort task in which they were rewarded for winning an overall percentage, or for winning a competition they believed was against another player. In Experiment 2, participants completed a memory task in which they were rewarded for remembering an overall percentage of shapes, or more shapes than a “competitor.” We found that, in the physical effort task, participants demonstrated faster reaction times (RTs)—a previous indicator of increased attention—in the competitive environment. Moreover, individual differences predicted the salience of competition’s effect. Furthermore, male participants showed faster RTs and greater sustained effort as a result of a competitive environment, suggesting that males may be more affected by competition in physical effort tasks. However, in Experiment 2, participants remembered fewer shapes when competing, and later recalled less of these shapes during a post-test, suggesting that competition was harmful in our memory task. The different results from these two experiments suggest that competition can improve attention in a physical effort task, yet caution the use of competition in memory tasks. PMID:26388801

A methodology to identify stranded generation facilities and estimate stranded costs for Louisiana's electric utility industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cope, Robert Frank, III

1998-12-01

The electric utility industry in the United States is currently experiencing a new and different type of growing pain. It is the pain of having to restructure itself into a competitive business. Many industry experts are trying to explain how the nation as a whole, as well as individual states, will implement restructuring and handle its numerous "transition problems." One significant transition problem for federal and state regulators rests with determining a utility's stranded costs. Stranded generation facilities are assets which would be uneconomic in a competitive environment or costs for assets whose regulated book value is greater than market value. At issue is the methodology which will be used to estimate stranded costs. The two primary methods are known as "Top-Down" and "Bottom-Up." The "Top-Down" approach simply determines the present value of the losses in revenue as the market price for electricity changes over a period of time into the future. The problem with this approach is that it does not take into account technical issues associated with the generation and wheeling of electricity. The "Bottom-Up" approach computes the present value of specific strandable generation facilities and compares the resulting valuations with their historical costs. It is regarded as a detailed and difficult, but more precise, approach to identifying stranded assets and their associated costs. This dissertation develops a "Bottom-Up" quantitative, optimization-based approach to electric power wheeling within the state of Louisiana. It optimally evaluates all production capabilities and coordinates the movement of bulk power through transmission interconnections of competing companies in and around the state. Sensitivity analysis to this approach is performed by varying seasonal consumer demand, electric power imports, and transmission inter-connection cost parameters. Generation facility economic dispatch and transmission interconnection bulk power transfers, specific to each set of parameters, lead to the identification of stranded generation facilities. Stranded costs of non-dispatched and uneconomically dispatched generation facilities can then be estimated to indicate, arguably, the largest portion of restructuring transition costs as the industry is transformed from its present monopolistic structure to a competitive one.

Implications of deregulation in natural gas industry on utility risks and returns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Addepalli, Rajendra P.

This thesis examines the changes in risk and required return on capital for local distribution utility companies in the increasingly competitive natural gas industry. The deregulation in the industry impacts the LDCs in several ways. First, with the introduction of competition consumers have been given choices among suppliers besides the traditional monopoly, the local utility, for purchasing their natural gas supply needs. Second, with the introduction of competition, some of the interstate pipelines were stuck with 'Take Or Pay' contracts and other costs that resulted in 'stranded costs', which have been passed on to customers of the pipeline including the LDCs. Third, the new obligation for the LDCs to purchase gas from the market, as opposed to buying it from pipelines and passing on the costs to its customers, brought opportunities and risks as well. Finally, with the introduction of competition, in some states LDCs have been allowed to enter into unregulated ventures to increase their profits. In the thesis we first develop a multifactor model (MFM) to explain historical common stock returns of individual utilities and of utility portfolios. We use 'rolling regression' analysis to analyze how different variables explain the variation in stock returns over time. Second, we conduct event studies to analyze the events in the deregulation process that had significant impacts on the LDC returns. Finally we assess the changes in risk and required return on capital for the LDCs over a 15 year time frame, covering the deregulation period. We employ four aspects in the examination of risk and return profile of the utilities: measuring (a) changes in required return on common equity and Weighted Average Cost of Capital, (b) changes in risk premium (WACC less an interest rate proxy), (c) changes in utility bond ratings, and (d) changes in dividend payments, new debt and equity issuances. We perform regression analysis to explain the changes in the required WACC using new security issuances, dividend payments and revenues of the companies.

The impact of hospital market structure on patient volume, average length of stay, and the cost of care.

PubMed

Robinson, J C; Luft, H S

1985-12-01

A variety of recent proposals rely heavily on market forces as a means of controlling hospital cost inflation. Sceptics argue, however, that increased competition might lead to cost-increasing acquisitions of specialized clinical services and other forms of non-price competition as means of attracting physicians and patients. Using data from hospitals in 1972 we analyzed the impact of market structure on average hospital costs, measured in terms of both cost per patient and cost per patient day. Under the retrospective reimbursement system in place at the time, hospitals in more competitive environments exhibited significantly higher costs of production than did those in less competitive environments.

Changing competition in health care marketing: a method for analysis and strategic planning.

PubMed

Ellis, B; Brockman, B K

1993-01-01

As the cost and importance of healthcare continue to increase, competition in the medical industry is taking new forms and becoming more intense. The driving trends behind this competition are analyzed in the framework of Porter's Five Forces of Competition Model. The authors then discuss how the widely accepted strategies of cost, differentiation, focus, and domestication can be utilized to counter the implications of these trends and how to capitalize on opportunities in medical practice in the 1990's.

Deregulation strategies for local governments and the role/opportunities for energy efficiency services in the utility industry deregulation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tseng, P.C.

As the future shape of the electric utility industry continues to unfold and as retail competition becomes a reality, local governments are faced with balancing the need for: (1) economic development; (2) and to avoid the potential impact of cost-shifting among residents and businesses, while ensuring reliable and universal energy services. Furthermore, local governments need to find ways to recoup potential loss of franchise and tax revenues, to ensure fair and adequate energy-efficiency programs, and to continue other social programs for low income families. This paper will address two important issues every local government in the US are facing: (1)more » the development of viable deregulation strategies before, during and after the promulgation of utility deregulation; (2) opportunities for energy efficiency services in the competitive markets to serve local governments, which typically constitutes the largest market segment in utility's service territory. This paper presents issues and challenges common to all local governments. It documents strategies that several local governments are utilizing to embrace the coming electric utility restructuring and competition challenge to the benefits of their respective communities. This paper presents the results on deregulation work by the City of Portland, Oregon, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, and Montgomery County, Maryland. The research by these local governments was sponsored by the Urban Consortium Energy Task Force and Public Technology, Inc.« less

Managing an evolution: Deregulation of the electric utility industry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Skinner, S.K.

1994-12-31

The author discusses the emerging competitive situation in the electric power industry as deregulation of electric utilities looms on the horizon. The paper supports this change, and the competition it will bring, but urges caution as changes are instituted, and the regulatory bodies decide how and how much to free, and at what rates. The reason for his urge for caution comes from historical experience of other industries, which were smaller and had less direct impact on every American.

Light energy partitioning, photosynthetic efficiency and biomass allocation in invasive Prunus serotina and native Quercus petraea in relation to light environment, competition and allelopathy.

PubMed

Robakowski, Piotr; Bielinis, Ernest; Sendall, Kerrie

2018-05-01

This study addressed whether competition under different light environments was reflected by changes in leaf absorbed light energy partitioning, photosynthetic efficiency, relative growth rate and biomass allocation in invasive and native competitors. Additionally, a potential allelopathic effect of mulching with invasive Prunus serotina leaves on native Quercus petraea growth and photosynthesis was tested. The effect of light environment on leaf absorbed light energy partitioning and photosynthetic characteristics was more pronounced than the effects of interspecific competition and allelopathy. The quantum yield of PSII of invasive P. serotina increased in the presence of a competitor, indicating a higher plasticity in energy partitioning for the invasive over the native Q. petraea, giving it a competitive advantage. The most striking difference between the two study species was the higher crown-level net CO 2 assimilation rates (A crown ) of P. serotina compared with Q. petraea. At the juvenile life stage, higher relative growth rate and higher biomass allocation to foliage allowed P. serotina to absorb and use light energy for photosynthesis more efficiently than Q. petraea. Species-specific strategies of growth, biomass allocation, light energy partitioning and photosynthetic efficiency varied with the light environment and gave an advantage to the invader over its native competitor in competition for light. However, higher biomass allocation to roots in Q. petraea allows for greater belowground competition for water and nutrients as compared to P. serotina. This niche differentiation may compensate for the lower aboveground competitiveness of the native species and explain its ability to co-occur with the invasive competitor in natural forest settings.

A canopy architectural model to study the competitive ability of chickpea with sowthistle.

PubMed

Cici, S-Zahra-Hosseini; Adkins, Steve; Hanan, Jim

2008-06-01

Improving the competitive ability of crops is a sustainable method of weed management. This paper shows how a virtual plant model of competition between chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) can be used as a framework for discovering and/or developing more competitive chickpea cultivars. The virtual plant models were developed using the L-systems formalism, parameterized according to measurements taken on plants at intervals during their development. A quasi-Monte Carlo light-environment model was used to model the effect of chickpea canopy on the development of sowthistle. The chickpea-light environment-sowthistle model (CLES model) captured the hypothesis that the architecture of chickpea plants modifies the light environment inside the canopy and determines sowthistle growth and development pattern. The resulting CLES model was parameterized for different chickpea cultivars (viz. 'Macarena', 'Bumper', 'Jimbour' and '99071-1001') to compare their competitive ability with sowthistle. To validate the CLES model, an experiment was conducted using the same four chickpea cultivars as different treatments with a sowthistle growing under their canopy. The growth of sowthistle, both in silico and in glasshouse experiments, was reduced most by '99071-1001', a cultivar with a short phyllochron. The second rank of competitive ability belonged to 'Macarena' and 'Bumper', while 'Jimbour' was the least competitive cultivar. The architecture of virtual chickpea plants modified the light inside the canopy, which influenced the growth and development of the sowthistle plants in response to different cultivars. This is the first time that a virtual plant model of a crop-weed interaction has been developed. This virtual plant model can serve as a platform for a broad range of applications in the study of chickpea-weed interactions and their environment.

Harsh medicine. [retail wheeling experiment in Michigan and side effects

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Studness, C.M.

1993-07-15

Retailing wheeling's harmful side-effects may surface in a Michigan experiment. In the final analysis, the debate over retail wheeling is about whether there will be direct price competition in the electric power industry. Retail wheeling would extend to the electric power market the same freedom of choice among customers that is present elsewhere in the economy. It would provide a mechanism through which competition could enforce an efficient allocation of resources. It also undoubtedly would eliminate most of the huge discrepancies that exist between so many neighboring service areas. It is unlikely that permitting retail wheeling would actually result inmore » much wheeling or loss of load. Utilities will no doubt meet the threat of the loss of load by cutting rates to hold their customers. Hence, the primary effect would be on the pricing of electricity, not the wheeling of power. The retail wheeling experiment under consideration in Michigan can become an important step toward making the utility industry more efficient for the nation and more equitable for ratepayers. Unfortunately, it also is potentially unfair to the utilities involved. A retail wheeling experiment in one state is likely to put those utilities at risk for competitive attack, but is unlikely to give those utilities the countervailing power to use retail wheeling elsewhere to market their power. Fairness and economic efficiency require that retail wheeling exist everywhere, and that is is accessible to utilities as well as non-utilities.« less

LIBRA-LiTE: A 1000 MWe reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulcinski, G. L.; Engelstad, R. L.; Lovell, E. G.; MacFariane, J. J.; Mogahed, E. A.; Moses, G. A.; Peterson, R. R.; Rutledge, S.; Sawan, M. E.; SviatoslJavsky, I. N.; Sviatoslavsky, G.; Wittenberg, L. J.

1991-12-01

The results from this study indicate that light ions can be a competitive factor in the race to commercial fusion power. The relatively simple and near-term driver technology is particularly attractive compared to higher cost laser and heavy ion schemes. The cavity design and engineering operations can be tailored such that Utilities could envision a reliable and maintainable power plant. The major problem to be faced now is the method of beam propagation to the target. The LIBRA-LiTE design reveals that ballistic transport may be more attractive from a physics standpoint, but the severe neutron environment presents a challenge to materials scientists. Continued experimentation and research is needed to develop a truly attractive ICF power plant.

Gene-trait matching across the Bifidobacterium longum pan-genome reveals considerable diversity in carbohydrate catabolism among human infant strains.

PubMed

Arboleya, Silvia; Bottacini, Francesca; O'Connell-Motherway, Mary; Ryan, C Anthony; Ross, R Paul; van Sinderen, Douwe; Stanton, Catherine

2018-01-08

Bifidobacterium longum is a common member of the human gut microbiota and is frequently present at high numbers in the gut microbiota of humans throughout life, thus indicative of a close symbiotic host-microbe relationship. Different mechanisms may be responsible for the high competitiveness of this taxon in its human host to allow stable establishment in the complex and dynamic intestinal microbiota environment. The objective of this study was to assess the genetic and metabolic diversity in a set of 20 B. longum strains, most of which had previously been isolated from infants, by performing whole genome sequencing and comparative analysis, and to analyse their carbohydrate utilization abilities using a gene-trait matching approach. We analysed their pan-genome and their phylogenetic relatedness. All strains clustered in the B. longum ssp. longum phylogenetic subgroup, except for one individual strain which was found to cluster in the B. longum ssp. suis phylogenetic group. The examined strains exhibit genomic diversity, while they also varied in their sugar utilization profiles. This allowed us to perform a gene-trait matching exercise enabling the identification of five gene clusters involved in the utilization of xylo-oligosaccharides, arabinan, arabinoxylan, galactan and fucosyllactose, the latter of which is an abundant human milk oligosaccharide (HMO). The results showed high diversity in terms of genes and predicted glycosyl-hydrolases, as well as the ability to metabolize a large range of sugars. Moreover, we corroborate the capability of B. longum ssp. longum to metabolise HMOs. Ultimately, their intraspecific genomic diversity and the ability to consume a wide assortment of carbohydrates, ranging from plant-derived carbohydrates to HMOs, may provide an explanation for the competitive advantage and persistence of B. longum in the human gut microbiome.

Shareholder interests and utility competition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Studness, C.M.

1995-03-15

The process of determining how to implement utility competition is often cast as a struggle between two opposing camps: shareholders and ratepayers. There are, of course, two other major players, management and regulators. The bipolar view tacitly assumes that shareholder and management interests coincide and that regulators have customer interests at heart. Neither assumption is valid. Shareholder interests deviate from management interests in important ways, just as the interests of the entrenched regulatory bureaucracy diverge from the public interest. Therefore, shareholder and management interests must be considered separately. In the past, managements have often pursued their own interests, with devastatingmore » financial impact on shareholders. Competition offers shareholders an opportunity to increase their leverage over managements, thereby increasing their returns as well.« less

Developing Distinctive Degrees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodchild, Lester F.; Chambers, Crystal Renée; Freeman, Sydney, Jr.

2016-01-01

Understanding one's competitive stance in a globally competitive environment provides the requisite awareness to maintain both competitive edge and institutional responsiveness. In this chapter, three case studies are presented to provide examples of ways in which strategic scanning can enhance the academic program development process and how…

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

OShaughnessy, Eric J; Volpi, Christina M; Heeter, Jenny S

Annual report of sales and number of customers in voluntary green power markets, including utility green pricing programs, utility green partnerships, competitive suppliers, unbundled renewable energy certificates, community choice aggregations, power purchase agreements, and community solar.

Rolling thunder over retail competition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ridley, S.

This article addresses changes in the utility marketplace brought about by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and focuses on initiatives in California and Massachusetts. Both initiatives are designed to increase competition amongst suppliers and to open new consumer-oriented options for municipal governments.

Periplasmic binding protein-based detection of maltose using liposomes: a new class of biorecognition elements in competitive assays.

PubMed

Edwards, Katie A; Baeumner, Antje J

2013-03-05

A periplasmic binding protein (PBP) was investigated as a novel binding species in a similar manner to an antibody in a competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), resulting in a highly sensitive and specific assay utilizing liposome-based signal amplification. PBPs are located at high concentrations (10(-4) M) between the inner and outer membranes of gram negative bacteria and are involved in the uptake of solutes and chemotaxis of bacteria toward nutrient sources. Previous sensors relying on PBPs took advantage of the change in local environment or proximity of site-specific fluorophore labels resulting from the significant conformational shift of these proteins' two globular domains upon target binding. Here, rather than monitoring conformational shifts, we have instead utilized the maltose binding protein (MBP) in lieu of an antibody in an ELISA. To our knowledge, this is the first PBP-based sensor without the requirement for engineering site-specific modifications within the protein. MBP conjugated fluorescent dye-encapsulating liposomes served to provide recognition and signal amplification in a competitive assay for maltose using amylose magnetic beads in a microtiter plate-based format. The development of appropriate binding buffers and competitive surfaces are described, with general observations expected to extend to PBPs for other analytes. The resulting assay was specific for d-(+)-maltose versus other sugar analogs including d-(+)-raffinose, sucrose, d-trehalose, d-(+)-xylose, d-fructose, 1-thio-β-d-glucose sodium salt, d-(+)-galactose, sorbitol, glycerol, and dextrose. Cross-reactivity with d-lactose and d-(+)-glucose occurred only at concentrations >10(4)-fold greater than d-(+)-maltose. The limit of detection was 78 nM with a dynamic range covering over 3 orders of magnitude. Accurate detection of maltose as an active ingredient in a pharmaceutical preparation was demonstrated. This method offers a significant improvement over existing enzymatic detection approaches that cannot discriminate between maltose and glucose and over existing fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based detection methods that are sensitivity limited. In addition, it opens up a new strategy for the development of biosensors to difficult analytes refractory to immunological detection.

Sperm production responds to perceived sperm competition risk in male Drosophila melanogaster.

PubMed

Moatt, Joshua P; Dytham, Calvin; Thom, Michael D F

2014-05-28

Postcopulatory sexual selection arising from female multiple mating leads to the evolution of ejaculates that maximize a male's reproductive success under sperm competition. Where the risk of sperm competition is variable, optimal fitness may be achieved by plastically altering ejaculate characteristics in response to the prevailing sperm competition environment. In the model species Drosophila melanogaster, males expecting to encounter sperm competition mate for longer and transfer more accessory proteins and sperm. Here we show that after being housed with a single rival for one week, the seminal vesicles of male D. melanogaster contain a significantly greater proportion of live sperm than those of males maintained alone, indicating adaptive adjustment of sperm quality in response to the perceived risk of sperm competition. This effect is due to an increase in the number of live sperm produced, indicating that males upregulate sperm production in response to the presence of rivals. Our data suggest that males show plasticity in the rate of spermatogenesis that is adaptive in the context of a fluctuating sperm competition environment. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contrasting the effects of environment, dispersal and biotic interactions to explain the distribution of invasive plants in alpine communities

PubMed Central

GALLIEN, Laure; MAZEL, Florent; LAVERGNE, Sébastien; RENAUD, Julien; DOUZET, Rolland; THUILLER, Wilfried

2015-01-01

Despite considerable efforts devoted to investigate the community assembly processes driving plant invasions, few general conclusions have been drawn so far. Three main processes, generally acting as successive filters, are thought to be of prime importance. The invader has to disperse (1st filter) into a suitable environment (2nd filter) and succeed in establishing in recipient communities through competitive interactions (3rd filter) using two strategies: competition avoidance by the use of different resources (resource opportunity), or competitive exclusion of native species. Surprisingly, despite the general consensus on the importance of investigating these three processes and their interplay, they are usually studied independently. Here we aim to analyse these three filters together, by including them all: abiotic environment, dispersal and biotic interactions, into models of invasive species distributions. We first propose a suite of indices (based on species functional dissimilarities) supposed to reflect the two competitive strategies (resource opportunity and competition exclusion). Then, we use a set of generalised linear models to explain the distribution of seven herbaceous invaders in natural communities (using a large vegetation database for the French Alps containing 5,000 community-plots). Finally, we measure the relative importance of competitive interaction indices, identify the type of coexistence mechanism involved and how this varies along environmental gradients. Adding competition indices significantly improved model’s performance, but neither resource opportunity nor competitive exclusion were common strategies among the seven species. Overall, we show that combining environmental, dispersal and biotic information to model invasions has excellent potential for improving our understanding of invader success. PMID:26290653

The "Secrets" of Chinese Students' Academic Success: Academic Resilience among Students from Highly Competitive Academic Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Haibin

2017-01-01

Given Chinese students often perform well academically despite the challenges of their competitive academic environments, it is important to explore what enables the academic resilience of these students. Moreover, because the extant resilience literature is biased towards Western accounts of resilience, it is crucial that non-Western perspectives…

Robotics Competitions: The Choice Is up to You!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Richard T.; Londt, Susan E.

2010-01-01

Competitive robotics as an interactive experience can increase the level of student participation in technology education, inspire students to consider careers in technical fields, and enhance the visibility of technology education programs. Implemented correctly, a competitive robotics program can provide a stimulating learning environment for…

Evolutionary implications of interspecific variation in a maternal effect: a meta-analysis of yolk testosterone response to competition

PubMed Central

Navara, Kristen J.

2016-01-01

Competition between conspecifics during the breeding season can result in behavioural and physiological programming of offspring via maternal effects. For birds, in which maternal effects are best studied, it has been claimed that exposure to increased competition causes greater deposition of testosterone into egg yolks, which creates faster growing, more aggressive offspring; such traits are thought to be beneficial for high-competition environments. Nevertheless, not all species show a positive relationship between competitive interactions and yolk testosterone, and an explanation for this interspecific variation is lacking. We here test if the magnitude and direction of maternal testosterone allocated to eggs in response to competition can be explained by life-history traits while accounting for phylogenetic relationships. We performed a meta-analysis relating effect size of yolk testosterone response to competition with species coloniality, nest type, parental effort and mating type. We found that effect size was moderated by coloniality and nest type; colonial species and those with open nests allocate less testosterone to eggs when in more competitive environments. Applying a life-history perspective helps contextualize studies showing little or negative responses of yolk testosterone to competition and improves our understanding of how variation in this maternal effect may have evolved. PMID:28018636

Stranded cost securitization: Analytical considerations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abbott, S.

1997-10-01

Securitization is a promising financing approach by which utilities may recover their stranded costs while lowering their cost of capital, permitting them to offer rate reductions to customers. However, there are important issues to analyze before determining that securitization will be an attractive option for bondholders. To facilitate the transition to a competitive electric market, numerous state legislatures have passed or are considering legislation that, while mandating competition, allows utilities to recover their stranded costs through the imposition of a competitive transition fee. To accommodate securitization of revenues from the fees, statutes typically designate as a property right the futuremore » revenues from these fees and the utility may sell, assign, or transfer the rights to a financing vehicle. Securities may be issued by a trust or other special purpose vehicle supported by future revenues from these fees. Because of the unique characteristics of the highly regulated utility industry and the {open_quotes}asset{close_quotes} that is securitized, the credit analysis of stranded cost securities differs from that of most other assets. For example, underwriting and servicing issues, which are key items of interest in other segments of the ABS market, are less of a concern in a stranded cost context.« less

Flow environment and matrix structure interact to determine spatial competition in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.

PubMed

Nadell, Carey D; Ricaurte, Deirdre; Yan, Jing; Drescher, Knut; Bassler, Bonnie L

2017-01-13

Bacteria often live in biofilms, which are microbial communities surrounded by a secreted extracellular matrix. Here, we demonstrate that hydrodynamic flow and matrix organization interact to shape competitive dynamics in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. Irrespective of initial frequency, in competition with matrix mutants, wild-type cells always increase in relative abundance in planar microfluidic devices under simple flow regimes. By contrast, in microenvironments with complex, irregular flow profiles - which are common in natural environments - wild-type matrix-producing and isogenic non-producing strains can coexist. This result stems from local obstruction of flow by wild-type matrix producers, which generates regions of near-zero shear that allow matrix mutants to locally accumulate. Our findings connect the evolutionary stability of matrix production with the hydrodynamics and spatial structure of the surrounding environment, providing a potential explanation for the variation in biofilm matrix secretion observed among bacteria in natural environments.

Long-term competition between sulfate reducing and methanogenic bacteria in UASB reactors treating volatile fatty acids.

PubMed

Omil, F; Lens, P; Visser, A; Hulshoff Pol, L W; Lettinga, G

1998-03-20

The competition between acetate utilizing methane-producing bacteria (MB) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) was studied in mesophilic (30 degrees C) upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactors (upward velocity 1 m h-1; pH 8) treating volatile fatty acids and sulfate. The UASB reactors treated a VFA mixture (with an acetate:propionate:butyrate ratio of 5:3:2 on COD basis) or acetate as the sole substrate at different COD:sulfate ratios. The outcome of the competition was evaluated in terms of conversion rates and specific methanogenic and sulfidogenic activities. The COD:sulfate ratio was a key factor in the partitioning of acetate utilization between MB and SRB. In excess of sulfate (COD:sulfate ratio lower than 0.67), SRB became predominant over MB after prolonged reactor operation: 250 and 400 days were required to increase the amount of acetate used by SRB from 50 to 90% in the reactor treating, respectively, the VFA mixture or acetate as the sole substrate. The competition for acetate was further studied by dynamic simulations using a mathematical model based on the Monod kinetic parameters of acetate utilizing SRB and MB. The simulations confirmed the long term nature of the competition between these acetotrophs. A high reactor pH (+/-8), a short solid retention time (<150 days), and the presence of a substantial SRB population in the inoculum may considerably reduce the time required for acetate-utilising SRB to outcompete MB. Copyright 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Multiagent cooperation and competition with deep reinforcement learning.

PubMed

Tampuu, Ardi; Matiisen, Tambet; Kodelja, Dorian; Kuzovkin, Ilya; Korjus, Kristjan; Aru, Juhan; Aru, Jaan; Vicente, Raul

2017-01-01

Evolution of cooperation and competition can appear when multiple adaptive agents share a biological, social, or technological niche. In the present work we study how cooperation and competition emerge between autonomous agents that learn by reinforcement while using only their raw visual input as the state representation. In particular, we extend the Deep Q-Learning framework to multiagent environments to investigate the interaction between two learning agents in the well-known video game Pong. By manipulating the classical rewarding scheme of Pong we show how competitive and collaborative behaviors emerge. We also describe the progression from competitive to collaborative behavior when the incentive to cooperate is increased. Finally we show how learning by playing against another adaptive agent, instead of against a hard-wired algorithm, results in more robust strategies. The present work shows that Deep Q-Networks can become a useful tool for studying decentralized learning of multiagent systems coping with high-dimensional environments.

Multiagent cooperation and competition with deep reinforcement learning

PubMed Central

Kodelja, Dorian; Kuzovkin, Ilya; Korjus, Kristjan; Aru, Juhan; Aru, Jaan; Vicente, Raul

2017-01-01

Evolution of cooperation and competition can appear when multiple adaptive agents share a biological, social, or technological niche. In the present work we study how cooperation and competition emerge between autonomous agents that learn by reinforcement while using only their raw visual input as the state representation. In particular, we extend the Deep Q-Learning framework to multiagent environments to investigate the interaction between two learning agents in the well-known video game Pong. By manipulating the classical rewarding scheme of Pong we show how competitive and collaborative behaviors emerge. We also describe the progression from competitive to collaborative behavior when the incentive to cooperate is increased. Finally we show how learning by playing against another adaptive agent, instead of against a hard-wired algorithm, results in more robust strategies. The present work shows that Deep Q-Networks can become a useful tool for studying decentralized learning of multiagent systems coping with high-dimensional environments. PMID:28380078

Experimental comparisons of face-to-face and anonymous real-time team competition in a networked gaming learning environment.

PubMed

Yu, Fu-Yun; Han, Chialing; Chan, Tak-Wai

2008-08-01

This study investigates the impact of anonymous, computerized, synchronized team competition on students' motivation, satisfaction, and interpersonal relationships. Sixty-eight fourth-graders participated in this study. A synchronous gaming learning system was developed to have dyads compete against each other in answering multiple-choice questions set in accordance with the school curriculum in two conditions (face-to-face and anonymous). The results showed that students who were exposed to the anonymous team competition condition responded significantly more positively than those in the face-to-face condition in terms of motivation and satisfaction at the 0.050 and 0.056 levels respectively. Although further studies regarding the effects of anonymous interaction in a networked gaming learning environment are imperative, the positive effects detected in this preliminary study indicate that anonymity is a viable feature for mitigating the negative effects that competition may inflict on motivation and satisfaction as reported in traditional face-to-face environments.

Understanding school food service characteristics associated with higher competitive food revenues can help focus efforts to improve school food environments.

PubMed

Guthrie, Joanne F; Newman, Constance; Ralston, Katherine; Prell, Mark; Ollinger, Michael

2012-08-01

Many school food services sell extra foods and beverages, popularly referred to as “competitive foods,” in addition to USDA school meals. On the basis of national survey data, most competitive foods and beverages selected by students are of low nutritional value. Recent federal legislation will allow schools that participate in USDA school meal programs to sell competitive foods only if the food items they sell meet nutrition standards based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Concerns have been raised about the potential effects of limiting competitive foods on local school food service finances. However, national data indicate that only in a subset of schools do food services receive large amounts of revenues from competitive foods. These food services are typically located in secondary schools in more affluent districts, serving higher proportions of students who do not receive free or reduced price meals. Compared to other food services, these food services couple higher competitive food revenues with lower school meal participation. Increasing school meal participation could increase meal revenues to offset any loss of competitive food revenues. Replacing less-healthful competitive items with healthier options could also help maintain school food service revenues while improving the school food environment. Nationally consistent nutrition standards for competitive foods may encourage development and marketing of healthful products.

Is Donor Service Area Market Competition Associated With Organ Procurement Organization Performance?

PubMed

Adler, Joel T; Yeh, Heidi; Markmann, James F; Axelrod, David A

2016-06-01

Organ procurement organizations (OPOs) are currently evaluated on donation rates and number of organs per donor. However, there is significant variability in market characteristics which affect transplant programs' donor organ acceptance practices and OPOs' ability to successfully place higher risk organs. The impact of transplant market characteristics on OPO performance metrics has not been evaluated. The OPO performance measures were correlated annually with the Herfindahl Hirschman Index, a standard measure of market competition for centers within the OPO donor service areas from 2003 to 2011. More competitive donor service areas were associated with increased number of donors (P = 0.01) and eligible deaths (P < 0.001). Market competition was associated with increased use of high Donor Risk Index for kidney (P = 0.03) and liver (P = 0.01) allografts. The OPOs with increased competition in liver transplant also were noted to have a higher donor conversion rate (P < 0.001), more donors per million population (P < 0.001), and a higher utilization rate for liver allografts (P = 0.007). These data suggest that proposals to increase district size to increase competition among transplant programs could result in improved organ utilization over time by incentivizing the use of marginal donor organs and increasing access to transplantation.

Competition for light and nutrients in layered communities of aquatic plants.

PubMed

van Gerven, Luuk P A; de Klein, Jeroen J M; Gerla, Daan J; Kooi, Bob W; Kuiper, Jan J; Mooij, Wolf M

2015-07-01

Dominance of free-floating plants poses a threat to biodiversity in many freshwater ecosystems. Here we propose a theoretical framework to understand this dominance, by modeling the competition for light and nutrients in a layered community of floating and submerged plants. The model shows that at high supply of light and nutrients, floating plants always dominate due to their primacy for light, even when submerged plants have lower minimal resource requirements. The model also shows that floating-plant dominance cannot be an alternative stable state in light-limited environments but only in nutrient-limited environments, depending on the plants' resource consumption traits. Compared to unlayered communities, the asymmetry in competition for light-coincident with symmetry in competition for nutrients-leads to fundamentally different results: competition outcomes can no longer be predicted from species traits such as minimal resource requirements ([Formula: see text] rule) and resource consumption. Also, the same two species can, depending on the environment, coexist or be alternative stable states. When applied to two common plant species in temperate regions, both the model and field data suggest that floating-plant dominance is unlikely to be an alternative stable state.

Evaluation of Attractive Toxic Sugar Bait (ATSB) - Barrier for Control of Vector and Nuisance Mosquitoes and Its Effect on Non-target Organisms in Sub-tropical Environments in Florida

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-01-01

species does not frequently feed on humans but is considered the enzoonotic reservoir for EEE. Targeting this species development and resting habitats ...readily available sugar sources. However, we demonstrate that even in highly competitive sugar rich envi- ronments many vector and nuisance species ...effective control of anophelines in non-arid environments which suggest that even in highly competitive sugar rich environments this

Inhibition and promotion of trace pollutant adsorption within electrostatic precipitators.

PubMed

Clack, Herek L

2017-08-01

Among the technologies available for reducing mercury emissions from coal-fired electric utilities is the injection of a powdered sorbent, often some form of activated carbon, into the flue gas upstream of the particulate control device, most commonly an electrostatic precipitator (ESP). Detailed measurements of mercury removal within ESPs are lacking due to the hazardous environment they pose, increasing the importance of analysis and numerical simulation in understanding the mechanisms involved. Our previous analyses revealed that mercury adsorption by particles suspended in the gas and mercury adsorption by particles collected on internal ESP surfaces are not additive removal mechanisms but rather are competitive. The present study expands on this counterintuitive finding. Presented are results from numerical simulations reflecting the complete range of possible mass transfer boundary conditions representing mercury adsorption by the accumulated dust cake covering internal ESP collection electrodes. Using the two mercury removal mechanisms operating concurrently and interdependently always underperforms the sum of the two mechanisms' individual contributions. The dual use of electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) for particulate removal and adsorption of trace gaseous pollutants such as mercury is increasing as mercury regulations become more widespread. Under such circumstances, mercury adsorption by particles suspended in the gas and mercury adsorption by particles collected on internal ESP surfaces are competitive. Together, the two mercury removal mechanisms always underperform the sum of their two independent contributions. These findings can inform strategies sought by electric utilities for reducing the usage costs of mercury sorbents.

A Guide to Personalizing Learning: Suggestions for the Race to the Top-District Competition. An Education White Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Meg

2012-01-01

The top priority for the U.S. Department of Education's new Race to the Top-District (RTT-D) competition is to create personalized-learning environments to bolster student achievement: "Absolute Priority 1: Personalized Learning Environments. To meet this priority, an applicant must coherently and comprehensively address how it will build on…

Metatranscriptome analyses indicate resource partitioning between diatoms in the field.

PubMed

Alexander, Harriet; Jenkins, Bethany D; Rynearson, Tatiana A; Dyhrman, Sonya T

2015-04-28

Diverse communities of marine phytoplankton carry out half of global primary production. The vast diversity of the phytoplankton has long perplexed ecologists because these organisms coexist in an isotropic environment while competing for the same basic resources (e.g., inorganic nutrients). Differential niche partitioning of resources is one hypothesis to explain this "paradox of the plankton," but it is difficult to quantify and track variation in phytoplankton metabolism in situ. Here, we use quantitative metatranscriptome analyses to examine pathways of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) metabolism in diatoms that cooccur regularly in an estuary on the east coast of the United States (Narragansett Bay). Expression of known N and P metabolic pathways varied between diatoms, indicating apparent differences in resource utilization capacity that may prevent direct competition. Nutrient amendment incubations skewed N/P ratios, elucidating nutrient-responsive patterns of expression and facilitating a quantitative comparison between diatoms. The resource-responsive (RR) gene sets deviated in composition from the metabolic profile of the organism, being enriched in genes associated with N and P metabolism. Expression of the RR gene set varied over time and differed significantly between diatoms, resulting in opposite transcriptional responses to the same environment. Apparent differences in metabolic capacity and the expression of that capacity in the environment suggest that diatom-specific resource partitioning was occurring in Narragansett Bay. This high-resolution approach highlights the molecular underpinnings of diatom resource utilization and how cooccurring diatoms adjust their cellular physiology to partition their niche space.

Alternative Fuels Data Center: Phoenix Utility Fleet Drives Smarter with

Science.gov Websites

electric car. College Students Engineer Efficient Vehicles in EcoCAR 2 Competition Aug. 2, 2014 Photo of a BiodieselA> Phoenix Utility Fleet Drives Smarter with Biodiesel to someone by E-mail Share ... Aug. 26, 2017 Phoenix Utility Fleet Drives Smarter with Biodiesel Watch how a utility company in

Challenges in sensor development for the electric utility industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ward, Barry H.

1999-01-01

The electric utility industry is reducing operating costs in order to prepare for deregulation. The reduction in operating cost has meant a reduction in manpower. The ability to utilize remaining maintenance staff more effectively and to stay competitive in a deregulated environment has therefore become critical. In recent years, the industry has moved away from routine or periodic maintenance to predictive or condition based maintenance. This requires the assessment of equipment condition by frequent testing and inspection; a requirement that is incompatible with cost reduction. To overcome this dilemma, industry trends are toward condition monitoring, whereby the health of apparatus is monitored continuously. This requires the installation of sensors hr transducers on power equipment and the data taken forwarded to an intelligent device for further processing. These devices then analyze the data and make evaluations based on parameter levels or trends, in an attempt to predict possible deterioration. This continuous monitoring allows the electric utility to schedule maintenance on an as needed basis. The industry has been faced with many challenges in sensor design. The measurement of physical, chemical and electrical parameters under extreme conditions of electric fields, magnetic fields, temperature, corrosion, etc. is extensive. This paper will give an overview of these challenges and the solutions adopted for apparatus such as power transformers, circuit breakers, boilers, cables, batteries, and rotating machinery.

Learning Outcomes for Cyber Defense Competitions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woszczynski, Amy B.; Green, Andrew

2017-01-01

Cyber defense competitions (CDCs) simulate a real-world environment where the competitors must protect the information assets of a fictional organization. These competitions are becoming popular at the high school and college levels, as well as in industry and governmental settings. However, there is little research to date on the learning…

Telecommunications Policy Research Conference. Competition in the Local Loop Section. Papers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, Inc., Washington, DC.

Four papers consider competition, new technology and economics of local telephone companies in a deregulated environment: (1) "An Engineering and Policy Analysis of Fiber Introduction into the Residential Subscriber Loop" (Marvin Sirbu, Frank Ferrante, and David Reed); (2) "Competition in the Local Loop: Pricing Carrier Access"…

Are Children's Competitive Team Sports Socializing Agents for Corporate America?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berlage, Gai Ingham

In a study of the similarities between childrens' competitive team sports and the typical corporate or business environment, two research questions were posed: (1) Does the structural organization of childrens' soccer and ice hockey organizations resemble that of American corporations?; and (2) Are the values of childrens' competitive sports…

Guidelines For Creating and Maintaining a Competitive Environment for Supplies and Services in the Department of Defense

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-01

Commercial-Derivative Products/ Systems . o With the KC-46 aerial tanker aircraft , the Air Force had a requirements set that consisted of a... Systems Architecture......................................................................................6 c. Intellectual Property Strategy...11 e. Competition for Weapon System Production ........................................................12 f. Competition in

The contribution of competition to tree mortality in old-growth coniferous forests

USGS Publications Warehouse

Das, A.; Battles, J.; Stephenson, N.L.; van Mantgem, P.J.

2011-01-01

Competition is a well-documented contributor to tree mortality in temperate forests, with numerous studies documenting a relationship between tree death and the competitive environment. Models frequently rely on competition as the only non-random mechanism affecting tree mortality. However, for mature forests, competition may cease to be the primary driver of mortality.We use a large, long-term dataset to study the importance of competition in determining tree mortality in old-growth forests on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada of California, U.S.A. We make use of the comparative spatial configuration of dead and live trees, changes in tree spatial pattern through time, and field assessments of contributors to an individual tree's death to quantify competitive effects.Competition was apparently a significant contributor to tree mortality in these forests. Trees that died tended to be in more competitive environments than trees that survived, and suppression frequently appeared as a factor contributing to mortality. On the other hand, based on spatial pattern analyses, only three of 14 plots demonstrated compelling evidence that competition was dominating mortality. Most of the rest of the plots fell within the expectation for random mortality, and three fit neither the random nor the competition model. These results suggest that while competition is often playing a significant role in tree mortality processes in these forests it only infrequently governs those processes. In addition, the field assessments indicated a substantial presence of biotic mortality agents in trees that died.While competition is almost certainly important, demographics in these forests cannot accurately be characterized without a better grasp of other mortality processes. In particular, we likely need a better understanding of biotic agents and their interactions with one another and with competition. ?? 2011.

Analysis of competition between transformation pathways in the functioning of biotic abstract dual automata.

PubMed

Popa, Radu; Cimpoiasu, Vily M

2013-05-01

Properties of avenues of transformation and their mutualism with forms of organization in dynamic systems are essential for understanding the evolution of prebiotic order. We have analyzed competition between two avenues of transformation in an A↔B system, using the simulation approach called BiADA (Biotic Abstract Dual Automata). We discuss means of avoiding common pitfalls of abstract system modeling and benefits of BiADA-based simulations. We describe the effect of the availability of free energy, energy sink magnitude, and autocatalysis on the evolution of energy flux and order in the system. Results indicate that prebiotic competition between avenues of transformation was more stringent in energy-limited environments. We predict that in such conditions the efficiency of autocatalysis during competition between alternative system states will increase for systems with forms of organization having short half-lives and thus information that is time-sensitive to energy starvation. Our results also offer a potential solution to Manfred Eigen's error catastrophe dilemma. In the conditions discussed above, the exponential growth of quasi species is curbed through the removal of less competitive "genetic" variants via energy starvation. We propose that one of the most important achievements (and selective edges) of a dynamic network during competition in energy-limited or energy-variable environments was the capacity to correlate the internal energy flux and the need for free energy with the availability of free energy in the environment.

Competency Based Competitive Events. Integrating DECA into the DE Instructional Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cosgrove, Glenna; Moore, Harold W.

Designed to be integrated into a competency-based distributive education program, these competitive DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) events were developed, utilized, and evaluated by distributive education and cooperative education coordinators in Arkansas. These events are organized under the following occupational categories: food…

Competition-Colonization Trade-Offs, Competitive Uncertainty, and the Evolutionary Assembly of Species

PubMed Central

Pillai, Pradeep; Guichard, Frédéric

2012-01-01

We utilize a standard competition-colonization metapopulation model in order to study the evolutionary assembly of species. Based on earlier work showing how models assuming strict competitive hierarchies will likely lead to runaway evolution and self-extinction for all species, we adopt a continuous competition function that allows for levels of uncertainty in the outcome of competition. We then, by extending the standard patch-dynamic metapopulation model in order to include evolutionary dynamics, allow for the coevolution of species into stable communities composed of species with distinct limiting similarities. Runaway evolution towards stochastic extinction then becomes a limiting case controlled by the level of competitive uncertainty. We demonstrate how intermediate competitive uncertainty maximizes the equilibrium species richness as well as maximizes the adaptive radiation and self-assembly of species under adaptive dynamics with mutations of non-negligible size. By reconciling competition-colonization tradeoff theory with co-evolutionary dynamics, our results reveal the importance of intermediate levels of competitive uncertainty for the evolutionary assembly of species. PMID:22448253

Age, psychological skills, and golf performance: a prospective investigation.

PubMed

Hayslip, Bert; Petrie, Trent A

2014-03-01

This study explored the influence of age in understanding mental skills utilization in the context of performance at a major national golf competition. Participants, who ranged in age and in skill level, included 1150 male and 170 female amateur golfers competing in the Dupont World Amateur Golf Championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Measures targeted general mental skills used in competitions, golf-specific skills, and competitive trait anxiety. Hierarchical linear regression was utilized to explore the potential moderating role that chronological age may play in influencing the impact of psychological skills and anxiety on competitive tournament performance across the adult life span. Findings suggested no significant age-moderating effects and instead pointed to the importance of developing golf-specific psychological skills to enhance or maintain performance, irrespective of age. Although automaticity (performance feels "automatic") predicted performance for all golfers, commitment to the game and confidence in one's putting did so only for the men. These findings reinforce the age-irrelevant role of such skills in fostering the experience of peak performance in a competitive sport context and underscore the importance of interventions targeting older players to help maintain or facilitate the use of psychological skills in helping them manage their games.

Energy Systems Integration News - October 2016 | Energy Systems Integration

Science.gov Websites

SuperModels Game," a sophisticated game model developed by the National Association of Regulatory Utility maintain reliability, affordability, and utility company competitiveness. Those not invited to the game

Electricity Prices in a Competitive Environment: Marginal Cost Pricing

EIA Publications

1997-01-01

Presents the results of an analysis that focuses on two questions: (1) How are prices for competitive generation services likely to differ from regulated prices if competitive prices are based on marginal costs rather than regulated cost-of-service pricing? (2) What impacts will the competitive pricing of generation services (based on marginal costs) have on electricity consumption patterns, production costs, and the financial integrity of electricity suppliers?

Evaluation of power system security and development of transmission pricing method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Hyungchul

The electric power utility industry is presently undergoing a change towards the deregulated environment. This has resulted in unbundling of generation, transmission and distribution services. The introduction of competition into unbundled electricity services may lead system operation closer to its security boundaries resulting in smaller operating safety margins. The competitive environment is expected to lead to lower price rates for customers and higher efficiency for power suppliers in the long run. Under this deregulated environment, security assessment and pricing of transmission services have become important issues in power systems. This dissertation provides new methods for power system security assessment and transmission pricing. In power system security assessment, the following issues are discussed (1) The description of probabilistic methods for power system security assessment; (2) The computation time of simulation methods; (3) on-line security assessment for operation. A probabilistic method using Monte-Carlo simulation is proposed for power system security assessment. This method takes into account dynamic and static effects corresponding to contingencies. Two different Kohonen networks, Self-Organizing Maps and Learning Vector Quantization, are employed to speed up the probabilistic method. The combination of Kohonen networks and Monte-Carlo simulation can reduce computation time in comparison with straight Monte-Carlo simulation. A technique for security assessment employing Bayes classifier is also proposed. This method can be useful for system operators to make security decisions during on-line power system operation. This dissertation also suggests an approach for allocating transmission transaction costs based on reliability benefits in transmission services. The proposed method shows the transmission transaction cost of reliability benefits when transmission line capacities are considered. The ratio between allocation by transmission line capacity-use and allocation by reliability benefits is computed using the probability of system failure.

The nutrient-load hypothesis: patterns of resource limitation and community structure driven by competition for nutrients and light.

PubMed

Brauer, Verena S; Stomp, Maayke; Huisman, Jef

2012-06-01

Resource competition theory predicts that the outcome of competition for two nutrients depends on the ratio at which these nutrients are supplied. Yet there is considerable debate whether nutrient ratios or absolute nutrient loads determine the species composition of phytoplankton and plant communities. Here we extend the classical resource competition model for two nutrients by including light as additional resource. Our results suggest the nutrient-load hypothesis, which predicts that nutrient ratios determine the species composition in oligotrophic environments, whereas nutrient loads are decisive in eutrophic environments. The underlying mechanism is that nutrient enrichment shifts the species interactions from competition for nutrients to competition for light, which favors the dominance of superior light competitors overshadowing all other species. Intermediate nutrient loads can generate high biodiversity through a fine-grained patchwork of two-species and three-species coexistence equilibria. Depending on the species traits, however, competition for nutrients and light may also produce multiple alternative stable states, suppressing the predictability of the species composition. The nutrient-load hypothesis offers a solution for several discrepancies between classical resource competition theory and field observations, explains why eutrophication often leads to diversity loss, and provides a simple conceptual framework for patterns of biodiversity and community structure observed in nature.

Interspecific competition alters natural selection on shade avoidance phenotypes in Impatiens capensis.

PubMed

McGoey, Brechann V; Stinchcombe, John R

2009-08-01

Shade avoidance syndrome is a known adaptive response for Impatiens capensis growing in dense intraspecific competition. However, I. capensis also grow with dominant interspecific competitors in marshes. Here, we compare the I. capensis shade-avoidance phenotypes produced in the absence and presence of heterospecific competitors, as well as selection on those traits. Two treatments were established in a marsh; in one treatment all heterospecifics were removed, while in the other, all competitors remained. We compared morphological traits, light parameters, seed output and, using phenotypic selection analysis, examined directional and nonlinear selection operating in the different competitive treatments. Average phenotypes, light parameters and seed production all varied depending on competitive treatment. Phenotypic selection analyses revealed different directional, disruptive, stabilizing and correlational selection. The disparities seen in both phenotypes and selection between the treatments related to the important differences in elongation timing depending on the presence of heterospecifics, although environmental covariances between traits and fitness could also contribute. Phenotypes produced by I. capensis depend on their competitive environment, and differing selection on shade-avoidance traits between competitive environments could indirectly select for increased plasticity given gene flow between populations in different competitive contexts.

Coal conversion products Industrial applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Warren, D.; Dunkin, J.

1980-01-01

The synfuels economic evaluation model was utilized to analyze cost and product economics of the TVA coal conversion facilities. It is concluded that; (1) moderate yearly future escalations ( 6%) in current natural gas prices will result in medium-Btu gas becoming competitive with natural gas at the plant boundary; (2) utilizing DRI price projections, the alternate synfuel products, except for electricity, will be competitive with their counterparts; (3) central site fuel cell generation of electricity, utilizing MBG, is economically less attractive than the other synthetic fuels, given projected price rises in electricity produced by other means; and (4) because of estimated northern Alabama synfuels market demands, existing conventional fuels, infrastructure and industrial synfuels retrofit problems, a diversity of transportable synfuels products should be produced by the conversion facility.

No Student Left Behind: A Collaborative and Competitive Game-Based Learning Environment to Reduce the Achievement Gap of EFL Students in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Hui-Chun; Young, Shelley Shwu-Ching; Lin, Chiu-Pin

2015-01-01

How to close the achievement gap in the classroom so that no student is left behind becomes one of the most important issues nowadays. This study aims to construct a collaborative and competitive game-based learning environment to improve English proficiencies and reduce the achievement gap for disadvantaged students. The Wireless Crossword…

Periodic solution for a stochastic non-autonomous competitive Lotka-Volterra model in a polluted environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Daqing; Zhang, Qiumei; Hayat, Tasawar; Alsaedi, Ahmed

2017-04-01

In this paper, we consider a stochastic non-autonomous competitive Lotka-Volterra model in a polluted environment. We derive sufficient criteria for the existence and global attractivity of the boundary periodic solutions. Furthermore, we obtain conditions for the existence and global attractivity of a nontrivial positive periodic solution. Finally we make simulations to illustrate our analytical results.

The Study Experiences of the High Achievers in a Competitive Academic Environment: A Cost of Success?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nordmo, Ivar; Samara, Akylina

2009-01-01

The present paper is a case study that explores the study experiences and possible costs of success for the students accepted into the professional program in psychology at the University of Bergen in Norway. In this highly competitive environment, between 500 and 1000 students compete for 36 places during the introduction year. The study is based…

Utilizing thermophilic microbe in lignocelluloses based bioethanol production: Review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sriharti, Agustina, Wawan; Ratnawati, Lia; Rahman, Taufik; Salim, Takiyah

2017-01-01

The utilization of thermophilic microbe has attracted many parties, particularly in producing an alternative fuel like ethanol. Bioethanol is one of the alternative energy sources substituting for earth oil in the future. The advantage of using bioethanol is that it can reduce pollution levels and global warming because the result of bioethanol burning doesn't bring in a net addition of CO2 into environment. Moreover, decrease in the reserves of earth oil globally has also contributed to the notion on searching renewable energy resources such as bioethanol. Indonesia has a high biomass potential and can be used as raw material for bioethanol. The utilization of these raw materials will reduce fears of competition foodstuffs for energy production. The enzymes that play a role in degrading lignocelluloses are cellulolytic, hemicellulolytic, and lignolytic in nature. The main enzyme with an important role in bioethanol production is a complex enzyme capable of degrading lignocelluloses. The enzyme can be produced by the thermophilik microbes of the groups of bacteria and fungi such as Trichoderma viride, Clostridium thermocellum, Bacillus sp. Bioethanol production is heavily affected by raw material composition, microorganism type, and the condition of fermentation used.

Timing of favorable conditions, competition and fertility interact to govern recruitment of invasive Chinese tallow tree in stressful environments.

PubMed

Gabler, Christopher A; Siemann, Evan

2013-01-01

The rate of new exotic recruitment following removal of adult invaders (reinvasion pressure) influences restoration outcomes and costs but is highly variable and poorly understood. We hypothesize that broad variation in average reinvasion pressure of Triadica sebifera (Chinese tallow tree, a major invader) arises from differences among habitats in spatiotemporal availability of realized recruitment windows. These windows are periods of variable duration long enough to permit establishment given local environmental conditions. We tested this hypothesis via a greenhouse mesocosm experiment that quantified how the duration of favorable moisture conditions prior to flood or drought stress (window duration), competition and nutrient availability influenced Triadica success in high stress environments. Window duration influenced pre-stress seedling abundance and size, growth during stress and final abundance; it interacted with other factors to affect final biomass and germination during stress. Stress type and competition impacted final size and biomass, plus germination, mortality and changes in size during stress. Final abundance also depended on competition and the interaction of window duration, stress type and competition. Fertilization interacted with competition and stress to influence biomass and changes in height, respectively, but did not affect Triadica abundance. Overall, longer window durations promoted Triadica establishment, competition and drought (relative to flood) suppressed establishment, and fertilization had weak effects. Interactions among factors frequently produced different effects in specific contexts. Results support our 'outgrow the stress' hypothesis and show that temporal availability of abiotic windows and factors that influence growth rates govern Triadica recruitment in stressful environments. These findings suggest that native seed addition can effectively suppress superior competitors in stressful environments. We also describe environmental scenarios where specific management methods may be more or less effective. Our results enable better niche-based estimates of local reinvasion pressure, which can improve restoration efficacy and efficiency by informing site selection and optimal management.

Timing of Favorable Conditions, Competition and Fertility Interact to Govern Recruitment of Invasive Chinese Tallow Tree in Stressful Environments

PubMed Central

Gabler, Christopher A.; Siemann, Evan

2013-01-01

The rate of new exotic recruitment following removal of adult invaders (reinvasion pressure) influences restoration outcomes and costs but is highly variable and poorly understood. We hypothesize that broad variation in average reinvasion pressure of Triadica sebifera (Chinese tallow tree, a major invader) arises from differences among habitats in spatiotemporal availability of realized recruitment windows. These windows are periods of variable duration long enough to permit establishment given local environmental conditions. We tested this hypothesis via a greenhouse mesocosm experiment that quantified how the duration of favorable moisture conditions prior to flood or drought stress (window duration), competition and nutrient availability influenced Triadica success in high stress environments. Window duration influenced pre-stress seedling abundance and size, growth during stress and final abundance; it interacted with other factors to affect final biomass and germination during stress. Stress type and competition impacted final size and biomass, plus germination, mortality and changes in size during stress. Final abundance also depended on competition and the interaction of window duration, stress type and competition. Fertilization interacted with competition and stress to influence biomass and changes in height, respectively, but did not affect Triadica abundance. Overall, longer window durations promoted Triadica establishment, competition and drought (relative to flood) suppressed establishment, and fertilization had weak effects. Interactions among factors frequently produced different effects in specific contexts. Results support our ‘outgrow the stress’ hypothesis and show that temporal availability of abiotic windows and factors that influence growth rates govern Triadica recruitment in stressful environments. These findings suggest that native seed addition can effectively suppress superior competitors in stressful environments. We also describe environmental scenarios where specific management methods may be more or less effective. Our results enable better niche-based estimates of local reinvasion pressure, which can improve restoration efficacy and efficiency by informing site selection and optimal management. PMID:23967212

Impacts of generic competition and benefit management practices on spending for prescription drugs: evidence from Medicare's Part D benefit.

PubMed

Sheingold, Steven; Nguyen, Nguyen Xuan

2014-01-01

This study estimates the effects of generic competition, increased cost-sharing, and benefit practices on utilization and spending for prescription drugs. We examined changes in Medicare price and utilization from 2007 to 2009 of all drugs in 28 therapeutic classes. The classes accounted for 80% of Medicare Part D spending in 2009 and included the 6 protected classes and 6 classes with practically no generic competition. All variables were constructed to measure each drug relative to its class at a specific plan sponsor. We estimated that the shift toward generic utilization had cut in half the rate of increase in the price of a prescription during 2007-2009. Specifically, the results showed that (1) rapid generic penetration had significantly held down costs per prescription, (2) copayment and other benefit practices shifted utilization to generics and favored brands, and (3) price increases were generally greater in less competitive classes of drugs. In many ways, Part D was implemented at a fortuitous time; since 2006, there have been relatively few new blockbuster drugs introduced, and many existing high-volume drugs used by beneficiaries were in therapeutic classes with multiple brands and generic alternatives. Under these conditions, our paper showed that plan sponsors have been able to contain costs by encouraging use of generics or drugs offering greater value within therapeutic classes. It is less clear what will happen to future Part D costs if a number of new and effective drugs for beneficiaries enter the market with no real competitors.

Limited Evidence That Competitive Food and Beverage Practices Affect Adolescent Consumption Behaviors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vericker, Tracy C.

2013-01-01

Childhood obesity is emerging as a considerable public health problem with no clear antidote. The school food environment is a potential intervention point for policy makers, with competitive food and beverage regulation as a possible policy lever. This research examines the link between competitive food and beverage availability in school and…

Socioeconomic Differences in the Association between Competitive Food Laws and the School Food Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taber, Daniel R.; Chriqui, Jamie F.; Powell, Lisa M.; Perna, Frank M.; Robinson, Whitney R.; Chaloupka, Frank J.

2015-01-01

Background: Schools of low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to sell fewer healthy competitive foods/beverages. This study examined whether state competitive food laws may reduce such disparities. Methods: School administrators for fifth- and eighth grade reported foods and beverages sold in school. Index measures of the food/beverage environments…

Strategy Development for Incumbent Urban Universities: Moving Forward in an Increasingly Competitive Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Kirk

2002-01-01

Recently, many urban public universities have seen a drastic increase in competition. This project integrates Schumpeter's economic theories from 70 years ago with current strategic management theory in order to provide a framework for strategic response to that competition. This article explores all possible combinations of the high-low quality…

Public Schools in Marketized Environments: Shifting Incentives and Unintended Consequences of Competition-Based Educational Reforms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lubienski, Christopher

2005-01-01

By opening the system to competition, popular school choice reforms seek to remake public education into a more consumer-oriented endeavor. While the underlying theory holds that competitive pressures will induce change and improvement in educational processes, research indicates that organizations often respond instead by developing promotional…

The Mediating Effects of Anonymity and Proximity in an Online Synchronized Competitive Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Fu-Yun

2003-01-01

Since past studies showing that competition has negative effects on group process were primarily conducted in traditional classrooms involving face-to-face situations, this study extends past research by investigating whether the negative effects associated with face-to-face team competition can be mitigated with the support of networking…

Student Perceptions of Group-Based Competitive Exercises in the Chemistry Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cannon, Kevin C.; Mody, Tina; Breen, Maureen P.

2008-01-01

A non-traditional teaching method that can operate as a vehicle for engaging students is group-based competitive exercises. These exercises combine cooperative learning with a competitive environment and may be employed to promote subject- and problem-based learning. Survey responses of college-level organic chemistry and biochemistry students…

40 CFR 1051.620 - When may a manufacturer obtain an exemption for competition recreational vehicles?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... exemption for competition recreational vehicles? 1051.620 Section 1051.620 Protection of Environment... ENGINES AND VEHICLES Compliance Provisions § 1051.620 When may a manufacturer obtain an exemption for competition recreational vehicles? (a) We may grant you an exemption from the standards and requirements of...

Industry must cope with new European regulations by 1993

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pike, W.J.

1991-01-01

On Jan. 1, 1993, the European Economic Community (EEC) will implement its numerous directives designed to open the internal markets of individual member-nations. Regulations will cover procurement/competition, technical standards, labor, R and D funding, environment, taxation and transportation, among other areas. The oil and gas industry will be subject to these regulations under the Utilities Directive. Currently, there is a great deal of confusion about the EEC, their regulations and their impact on the international industry. This article attempts to make some sense out of the situation. since there is so much confusion with the issue of EEC and themore » industry, it is best to first describe briefly what the EEC is and what it is designed to do.« less

Competition on the Georgia Education Marketplace

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gagnidze, Archil; Maglakelidze, Shorena

2017-01-01

Georgia implemented a nationwide, full scale school voucher program in 2005. The new voucher plan was designed with the intent to provide equitable distribution and efficient utilization of financial and human resources. By introducing the voucher scheme, the government hoped to promote competition among public as well as private schools to push…

Is competition making a comeback? Discovering methods to keep female adolescents engaged in STEM: A phenomenological approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Notter, Kathryn Betz

The decreasing number of women who are graduating in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields continues to be a major concern. Despite national support in the form of grants provided by National Science Foundation, National Center for Information and Technology and legislation passed such as the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that encourages women to enter the STEM fields, the number of women actually graduating in these fields is surprisingly low. This research study focuses on a robotics competition and its ability to engage female adolescents in STEM curricula. Data have been collected to help explain why young women are reticent to take technology or engineering type courses in high school and college. Factors that have been described include attitudes, parental support, social aspects, peer pressure, and lack of role models. Often these courses were thought to have masculine and "nerdy" overtones. The courses were usually majority male enrollments and appeared to be very competitive. With more female adolescents engaging in this type of competitive atmosphere, this study gathered information to discover what about the competition appealed to these young women. Focus groups were used to gather information from adolescent females who were participating in the First Lego League (FLL) and CEENBoT competitions. What enticed them to participate in a curriculum that data demonstrated many of their peers avoided? FLL and CEENBoT are robotics programs based on curricula that are taught in afterschool programs in non-formal environments. These programs culminate in a very large robotics competition. My research questions included: What are the factors that encouraged participants to participate in the robotics competition? What was the original enticement to the FLL and CEENBoT programs? What will make participants want to come back and what are the participants' plans for the future? My research mirrored data of previous findings such as lack of role models, the need for parental support, social stigmatisms and peer pressure are still major factors that determine whether adolescent females seek out STEM activities. An interesting finding, which was an exception to previous findings, was these female adolescents enjoyed the challenge of the competition. The informal learning environments encouraged an atmosphere of social engagement and cooperative learning. Many volunteers that led the afterschool programs were women (role models) and a majority of parents showed support by accommodating an afterschool situation. The young women that were engaged in the competition noted it was a friendly competition, but they were all there to win. All who participated in the competition had a similar learning environment: competitive but cooperative. Further research is needed to determine if it is the learning environment that lures adolescent females to the program and entices them to continue in the STEM fields or if it is the competitive aspect of the culminating activity.

Observing the coach-created motivational environment across training and competition in youth sport.

PubMed

Smith, Nathan; Quested, Eleanor; Appleton, Paul R; Duda, Joan L

2017-01-01

Adopting an integrated achievement goal (Nicholls, J. G. (1989). The competitive ethos and democratic education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.) and self-determination theory (Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268. doi:10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01) perspective as proffered by Duda, J. L. (2013). (The conceptual and empirical foundations of empowering coaching TM : Setting the stage for the PAPA project. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11, 311-318. doi:10.1080/1612197X.2013.839414), the aim of the current study was to observe empowering and disempowering features of the multidimensional motivational coaching environment in training and competition in youth sport. Seventeen grass-roots soccer coaches were observed and rated in training and competitive settings using the multidimensional motivational climate observation system (MMCOS; Smith, N., Tessier, D., Tzioumakis, Y., Quested, E., Appleton, P., Sarrazin, P., … Duda, J. L. (2015). Development and validation of the multidimensional motivational climate observation system (MMCOS). Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 37, 4-22. doi:10.1123/jsep.2014-0059). In line with our hypotheses, coaches created different motivational environments in the two contexts. More specifically, coaches were observed to create a less empowering and more disempowering environment in competition compared to in training. The observed differences were underpinned by distinctive motivational strategies used by coaches in the two contexts. Findings have implications for the assessment of the coach-created motivational environment and the promotion of quality motivation for young athletes taking part in grass-roots-level sport.

State of the Voluntary Green Power Market (2016 Data)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

OShaughnessy, Eric J; Heeter, Jenny S; Cook, Jeffrey J

Annual report of sales and number of customers in voluntary green power markets, including utility green pricing programs, utility green partnerships, competitive suppliers, unbundled renewable energy certificates, community choice aggregations, power purchase agreements, and community solar.

Competition and Cooperation of Distributed Generation and Power System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyake, Masatoshi; Nanahara, Toshiya

Advances in distributed generation technologies together with the deregulation of an electric power industry can lead to a massive introduction of distributed generation. Since most of distributed generation will be interconnected to a power system, coordination and competition between distributed generators and large-scale power sources would be a vital issue in realizing a more desirable energy system in the future. This paper analyzes competitions between electric utilities and cogenerators from the viewpoints of economic and energy efficiency based on the simulation results on an energy system including a cogeneration system. First, we examine best response correspondence of an electric utility and a cogenerator with a noncooperative game approach: we obtain a Nash equilibrium point. Secondly, we examine the optimum strategy that attains the highest social surplus and the highest energy efficiency through global optimization.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Neal, J.W.

The nation`s rural electric cooperatives own a high proportion of coal-fired generation, in excess of 80 percent of their generating capacity. As the electric utility industry moves toward a competitive electricity market, the generation mix for electric cooperatives is expected to change. Distributed generation will likely serve more customer loads than is now the case, and that will lead to an increase in gas-fired generation capacity. But, clean low-cost central station coal-fired capacity is expected to continue to be the primary source of power for growing rural electric cooperatives. Gasification combined cycle could be the lowest cost coal based generationmore » option in this new competitive market if both capital cost and electricity production costs can be further reduced. This paper presents anticipated utility business scenarios for the deregulated future and identifies combined cycle power plant configurations that might prove most competitive.« less

Proceedings of the American Power Conference. Volume 58-II

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McBride, A.E.

1996-11-01

This book is part 2 of the proceedings of the American Power Conference, Technology for Competition and Globalization, 1996. The topics of the papers include structural plant design; challenges of the global marketplace; thermal hydraulic methods for nuclear power plant safety and operation; decontamination and decommissioning; competitive operations and maintenance; fuel opportunities; cooling; competitive power pricing; operations; transformers; relays; plant controls; training to meet the competitive future; burning technologies; ash and byproducts utilization; advanced systems; computer tools for plant design; globalization of power; power system protection and power quality; life extension; grounding; and transmission line equipment.

The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Unmanned Aircraft System Service Capabilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauer, Jeff

2007-01-01

Over 60 years of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) expertise at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dryden Flight Research Center are being leveraged to provide capability and expertise to the international UAS community. The DFRC brings together technical experts, UAS, and an operational environment to provide government and industry a broad capability to conduct research, perform operations, and mature systems, sensors, and regulation. The cornerstone of this effort is the acquisition of both a Global Hawk (Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, California) and Predator B (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., San Diego, California) unmanned aircraft system (UAS). In addition, a test range for small UAS will allow developers to conduct research and development flights without the need to obtain approval from civil authorities. Finally, experts are available to government and industry to provide safety assessments in support of operations in civil airspace. These services will allow developers to utilize limited resources to their maximum capability in a highly competitive environment.

The deep-subsurface sulfate reducer Desulfotomaculum kuznetsovii employs two methanol-degrading pathways.

PubMed

Sousa, Diana Z; Visser, Michael; van Gelder, Antonie H; Boeren, Sjef; Pieterse, Mervin M; Pinkse, Martijn W H; Verhaert, Peter D E M; Vogt, Carsten; Franke, Steffi; Kümmel, Steffen; Stams, Alfons J M

2018-01-16

Methanol is generally metabolized through a pathway initiated by a cobalamine-containing methanol methyltransferase by anaerobic methylotrophs (such as methanogens and acetogens), or through oxidation to formaldehyde using a methanol dehydrogenase by aerobes. Methanol is an important substrate in deep-subsurface environments, where thermophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria of the genus Desulfotomaculum have key roles. Here, we study the methanol metabolism of Desulfotomaculum kuznetsovii strain 17 T , isolated from a 3000-m deep geothermal water reservoir. We use proteomics to analyze cells grown with methanol and sulfate in the presence and absence of cobalt and vitamin B12. The results indicate the presence of two methanol-degrading pathways in D. kuznetsovii, a cobalt-dependent methanol methyltransferase and a cobalt-independent methanol dehydrogenase, which is further confirmed by stable isotope fractionation. This is the first report of a microorganism utilizing two distinct methanol conversion pathways. We hypothesize that this gives D. kuznetsovii a competitive advantage in its natural environment.

Cultural learning environment of upper secondary science students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhindsa, Harkirat S.

2005-05-01

The aims of this research were to validate the Cultural Learning Environment Questionnaire in the Brunei context and to evaluate culturally sensitive factors (gender equity, collaboration, deference, competition, teacher authority, modelling and congruence) of upper secondary students’ learning environment. The subjects of this study were 831 upper secondary science students from coeducational schools in Brunei. The data were collected by administering the Cultural Learning Environment Instrument developed by Fisher and Waldrip. Factor analysis and reliability results showed that the instrument was suitable for evaluating the six culturally sensitive factors associated with the cultural learning environment of Bruneian upper secondary students. The results also suggested that students believed both genders were treated equally in their classes. The students viewed that they were to some extent dependent learners; however, they were willing to give their independent views in their classes. The data also suggest that students perceived that they were equally cooperative and competitive. The culturally sensitive factors of the students’ cultural learning environment were not influenced by their gender, but regional variations in values for some of these factors were observed. Further research has been recommended to investigate how the students were equally cooperative and competitive, as well as what factors contributed to the regional differences.

Pronounced within-individual plasticity in sperm morphometry across social environments.

PubMed

Immler, Simone; Pryke, Sarah R; Birkhead, Tim R; Griffith, Simon C

2010-06-01

Sperm morphometry (i.e., size and shape) and function are important determinants of male reproductive success and are thought to be under stabilizing selection. However, recent studies suggest that sperm morphometry can be a phenotypically plastic trait, which can be adjusted to varying conditions. We tested whether different behavioral strategies in aggression between aggressive red and nonaggressive black males of the color polymorphic Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae) can influence sperm morphometry. We show pronounced within-individual phenotypic plasticity in sperm morphometry of male Gouldian finches in three different social environments. Both red and black males placed in intermediate to high competitive environments (high frequency of red males) increased the relative length of their sperm midpiece. By contrast, red males placed in low to intermediate competitive environments (higher frequency of black males) increased the length of the sperm flagellum. Significant changes in stress and sex steroid hormone levels (in response to the competitive environment) appear to influence sperm traits in red but not in black males, suggesting that changes in hormonal levels are not solely responsible for the observed changes in sperm morphometry. These findings imply that males can adjust sperm morphometry across social environments.

Investigating How to Align Schools' Marketing Environments With Federal Standards for Competitive Foods.

PubMed

Polacsek, Michele; O'Brien, Liam M; Pratt, Elizabeth; Whatley-Blum, Janet; Adler, Sabrina

2017-03-01

Limiting food and beverage marketing to children is a promising approach to influence children's nutrition behavior. School-based marketing influences nutrition behavior and studies have consistently found marketing for nonnutritious foods and beverages in schools. No studies have examined the resources necessary to align school marketing environments with federal school nutrition standards. The purpose of this study was to determine how to improve school marketing environments so that they align with new federal competitive food nutrition standards. We assessed food marketing environments in 3 Portland, Maine schools using the Food and Beverage Marketing Survey (FBMS) and provided technical assistance to bring their marketing environments into conformity with the federal competitive food regulations, tracking resources and strategies for marketing removal. Noncompliant marketing was significantly reduced pre- to postintervention. Intervention strategies were facilitated by the School Health Coordinator and school-based wellness teams. Low monetary resources were required to remove marketing not compliant with federal nutrition standards for foods sold in schools. Several key challenges remain to sustain efforts. This study provides timely information for policymakers to support crafting policies that address the realities of school nutrition environments and universal enforcement challenges. © 2017, American School Health Association.

Risk assessment and adaptive runoff utilization in water resource system considering the complex relationship among water supply, electricity generation and environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, J.; Zeng, X.; Mo, L.; Chen, L.; Jiang, Z.; Feng, Z.; Yuan, L.; He, Z.

2017-12-01

Generally, the adaptive utilization and regulation of runoff in the source region of China's southwest rivers is classified as a typical multi-objective collaborative optimization problem. There are grim competitions and incidence relation in the subsystems of water supply, electricity generation and environment, which leads to a series of complex problems represented by hydrological process variation, blocked electricity output and water environment risk. Mathematically, the difficulties of multi-objective collaborative optimization focus on the description of reciprocal relationships and the establishment of evolving model of adaptive systems. Thus, based on the theory of complex systems science, this project tries to carry out the research from the following aspects: the changing trend of coupled water resource, the covariant factor and driving mechanism, the dynamic evolution law of mutual feedback dynamic process in the supply-generation-environment coupled system, the environmental response and influence mechanism of coupled mutual feedback water resource system, the relationship between leading risk factor and multiple risk based on evolutionary stability and dynamic balance, the transfer mechanism of multiple risk response with the variation of the leading risk factor, the multidimensional coupled feedback system of multiple risk assessment index system and optimized decision theory. Based on the above-mentioned research results, the dynamic method balancing the efficiency of multiple objectives in the coupled feedback system and optimized regulation model of water resources is proposed, and the adaptive scheduling mode considering the internal characteristics and external response of coupled mutual feedback system of water resource is established. In this way, the project can make a contribution to the optimal scheduling theory and methodology of water resource management under uncertainty in the source region of Southwest River.

Are Competitive Materialism and Female Employment Related to International Homicide Rate?

PubMed

Chon, Don Soo

2017-04-01

The institutional anomie theory is a proposal that states competitive materialism, an intense cultural pressure for economic success at any costs, and increased female employment may be related to a high homicide rate. The current work tested this proposition by utilizing homicide data collected from 45 developed and developing countries. Regression results did not support the proposition. Competitive materialism and female employment were not significantly related to the cross-national variation of homicide rates.

Medicare program; competitive acquisition for certain durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) and other issues. Final rule.

PubMed

2007-04-10

This final rule establishes competitive bidding programs for certain Medicare Part B covered items of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) throughout the United States in accordance with sections 1847(a) and (b) of the Social Security Act. These competitive bidding programs, which will be phased in over several years, utilize bids submitted by DMEPOS suppliers to establish applicable payment amounts under Medicare Part B.

Competitive marketing strategies. A challenge for academic practices.

PubMed

Sinioris, M E

1985-01-01

A special challenge has been presented to academic medical practices by the new healthcare environment. While increased competition for patients and resources affects all medical groups, it is the academic practices who are responsible for training the physicians of tomorrow. Not only must they sharpen their students' awareness of the new environment and teach them to incorporate effective management strategies into their practices, but they must set an example in effective management as well. The basic concepts of competitive marketing strategy, along with helpful exhibits, are presented here, and strategies for effectively maximizing position are discussed from the viewpoints of product mix, process market, and financing.

Competitive strategy in the hospital industry.

PubMed

Autrey, P; Thomas, D

1986-01-01

Porter recently developed a framework for applying effective strategies in an increasingly competitive business environment. His framework can be adapted to the health care industry and can serve as a tool for success.

Reciprocal Prioritization to Dietary Glycans by Gut Bacteria in a Competitive Environment Promotes Stable Coexistence

PubMed Central

Tuncil, Yunus E.; Xiao, Yao; Porter, Nathan T.; Reuhs, Bradley L.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT When presented with nutrient mixtures, several human gut Bacteroides species exhibit hierarchical utilization of glycans through a phenomenon that resembles catabolite repression. However, it is unclear how closely these observed physiological changes, often measured by altered transcription of glycan utilization genes, mirror actual glycan depletion. To understand the glycan prioritization strategies of two closely related human gut symbionts, Bacteroides ovatus and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, we performed a series of time course assays in which both species were individually grown in a medium with six different glycans that both species can degrade. Disappearance of the substrates and transcription of the corresponding polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) were measured. Each species utilized some glycans before others, but with different priorities per species, providing insight into species-specific hierarchical preferences. In general, the presence of highly prioritized glycans repressed transcription of genes involved in utilizing lower-priority nutrients. However, transcriptional sensitivity to some glycans varied relative to the residual concentration in the medium, with some PULs that target high-priority substrates remaining highly expressed even after their target glycan had been mostly depleted. Coculturing of these organisms in the same mixture showed that the hierarchical orders generally remained the same, promoting stable coexistence. Polymer length was found to be a contributing factor for glycan utilization, thereby affecting its place in the hierarchy. Our findings not only elucidate how B. ovatus and B. thetaiotaomicron strategically access glycans to maintain coexistence but also support the prioritization of carbohydrate utilization based on carbohydrate structure, advancing our understanding of the relationships between diet and the gut microbiome. PMID:29018117

Replication of Simulated Prebiotic Amphiphilic Vesicles in a Finite Environment Exhibits Complex Behavior That Includes High Progeny Variability and Competition

PubMed Central

Armstrong, Don L.; Lancet, Doron

2018-01-01

Abstract We studied the simulated replication and growth of prebiotic vesicles composed of 140 phospholipids and cholesterol using our R-GARD (Real Graded Autocatalysis Replication Domain) formalism that utilizes currently extant lipids that have known rate constants of lipid-vesicle interactions from published experimental data. R-GARD normally modifies kinetic parameters of lipid-vesicle interactions based on vesicle composition and properties. Our original R-GARD model tracked the growth and division of one vesicle at a time in an environment with unlimited lipids at a constant concentration. We explore here a modified model where vesicles compete for a finite supply of lipids. We observed that vesicles exhibit complex behavior including initial fast unrestricted growth, followed by intervesicle competition for diminishing resources, then a second growth burst driven by better-adapted vesicles, and ending with a final steady state. Furthermore, in simulations without kinetic parameter modifications (“invariant kinetics”), the initial replication was an order of magnitude slower, and vesicles' composition variability at the final steady state was much lower. The complex kinetic behavior was not observed either in the previously published R-GARD simulations or in additional simulations presented here with only one lipid component. This demonstrates that both a finite environment (inducing selection) and multiple components (providing variation for selection to act upon) are crucial for portraying evolution-like behavior. Such properties can improve survival in a changing environment by increasing the ability of early protocellular entities to respond to rapid environmental fluctuations likely present during abiogenesis both on Earth and possibly on other planets. This in silico simulation predicts that a relatively simple in vitro chemical system containing only lipid molecules might exhibit properties that are relevant to prebiotic processes. Key Words: Phospholipid vesicles—Prebiotic compartments—Prebiotic vesicle competition—Prebiotic vesicle variability. Astrobiology 18, 419–430. PMID:29634319

Effects of Spatial Patch Arrangement and Scale of Covarying Resources on Growth and Intraspecific Competition of a Clonal Plant

PubMed Central

Wang, Yong-Jian; Shi, Xue-Ping; Meng, Xue-Feng; Wu, Xiao-Jing; Luo, Fang-Li; Yu, Fei-Hai

2016-01-01

Spatial heterogeneity in two co-variable resources such as light and water availability is common and can affect the growth of clonal plants. Several studies have tested effects of spatial heterogeneity in the supply of a single resource on competitive interactions of plants, but none has examined those of heterogeneous distribution of two co-variable resources. In a greenhouse experiment, we grew one (without intraspecific competition) or nine isolated ramets (with competition) of a rhizomatous herb Iris japonica under a homogeneous environment and four heterogeneous environments differing in patch arrangement (reciprocal and parallel patchiness of light and soil water) and patch scale (large and small patches of light and water). Intraspecific competition significantly decreased the growth of I. japonica, but at the whole container level there were no significant interaction effects of competition by spatial heterogeneity or significant effect of heterogeneity on competitive intensity. Irrespective of competition, the growth of I. japonica in the high and the low water patches did not differ significantly in the homogeneous treatments, but it was significantly larger in the high than in the low water patches in the heterogeneous treatments with large patches. For the heterogeneous treatments with small patches, the growth of I. japonica was significantly larger in the high than in the low water patches in the presence of competition, but such an effect was not significant in the absence of competition. Furthermore, patch arrangement and patch scale significantly affected competitive intensity at the patch level. Therefore, spatial heterogeneity in light and water supply can alter intraspecific competition at the patch level and such effects depend on patch arrangement and patch scale. PMID:27375630

Effects of Spatial Patch Arrangement and Scale of Covarying Resources on Growth and Intraspecific Competition of a Clonal Plant.

PubMed

Wang, Yong-Jian; Shi, Xue-Ping; Meng, Xue-Feng; Wu, Xiao-Jing; Luo, Fang-Li; Yu, Fei-Hai

2016-01-01

Spatial heterogeneity in two co-variable resources such as light and water availability is common and can affect the growth of clonal plants. Several studies have tested effects of spatial heterogeneity in the supply of a single resource on competitive interactions of plants, but none has examined those of heterogeneous distribution of two co-variable resources. In a greenhouse experiment, we grew one (without intraspecific competition) or nine isolated ramets (with competition) of a rhizomatous herb Iris japonica under a homogeneous environment and four heterogeneous environments differing in patch arrangement (reciprocal and parallel patchiness of light and soil water) and patch scale (large and small patches of light and water). Intraspecific competition significantly decreased the growth of I. japonica, but at the whole container level there were no significant interaction effects of competition by spatial heterogeneity or significant effect of heterogeneity on competitive intensity. Irrespective of competition, the growth of I. japonica in the high and the low water patches did not differ significantly in the homogeneous treatments, but it was significantly larger in the high than in the low water patches in the heterogeneous treatments with large patches. For the heterogeneous treatments with small patches, the growth of I. japonica was significantly larger in the high than in the low water patches in the presence of competition, but such an effect was not significant in the absence of competition. Furthermore, patch arrangement and patch scale significantly affected competitive intensity at the patch level. Therefore, spatial heterogeneity in light and water supply can alter intraspecific competition at the patch level and such effects depend on patch arrangement and patch scale.

The Writing on the Wall: Responses of Australian Public Universities to Competition in Global Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bradmore, Donald J.; Smyrnios, Kosmas X.

2009-01-01

Australian public universities are struggling to maintain parity with international counterparts in an environment that is becoming increasingly competitive globally. While most universities are now heeding calls from sector leaders to become more competitive, any strategies that they implement to effect change in this regard might be too late to…

Barriers of access to care in a managed competition model: lessons from Colombia.

PubMed

Vargas, Ingrid; Vázquez, María Luisa; Mogollón-Pérez, Amparo Susana; Unger, Jean-Pierre

2010-10-29

The health sector reform in Colombia, initiated by Law 100 (1993) that introduced a managed competition model, is generally presented as a successful experience of improving access to care through a health insurance regulated market. The study's objective is to improve our understanding of the factors influencing access to the continuum of care in the Colombian managed competition model, from the social actors' point of view. An exploratory, descriptive-interpretative qualitative study was carried out, based on case studies of four healthcare networks in rural and urban areas. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted to a three stage theoretical sample: I) cases, II) providers and III) informants: insured and uninsured users (35), health professionals (51), administrative personnel (20), and providers' (18) and insurers' (10) managers. Narrative content analysis was conducted; segmented by cases, informant's groups and themes. Access, particularly to secondary care, is perceived as complex due to four groups of obstacles with synergetic effects: segmented insurance design with insufficient services covered; insurers' managed care and purchasing mechanisms; providers' networks structural and organizational limitations; and, poor living conditions. Insurers' and providers' values based on economic profit permeate all factors. Variations became apparent between the two geographical areas and insurance schemes. In the urban areas barriers related to market functioning predominate, whereas in the rural areas structural deficiencies in health services are linked to insufficient public funding. While financial obstacles are dominant in the subsidized regime, in the contributory scheme supply shortage prevails, related to insufficient private investment. The results show how in the Colombian healthcare system structural and organizational barriers to care access, that are common in developing countries, are widened by both the insurers' use of mechanisms that limit the utilization and the public healthcare providers' change of behavior in a competition environment. They provide evidence to question the promotion of the managed competition model in low and middle-income countries.

Barriers of access to care in a managed competition model: lessons from Colombia

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background The health sector reform in Colombia, initiated by Law 100 (1993) that introduced a managed competition model, is generally presented as a successful experience of improving access to care through a health insurance regulated market. The study's objective is to improve our understanding of the factors influencing access to the continuum of care in the Colombian managed competition model, from the social actors' point of view. Methods An exploratory, descriptive-interpretative qualitative study was carried out, based on case studies of four healthcare networks in rural and urban areas. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted to a three stage theoretical sample: I) cases, II) providers and III) informants: insured and uninsured users (35), health professionals (51), administrative personnel (20), and providers' (18) and insurers' (10) managers. Narrative content analysis was conducted; segmented by cases, informant's groups and themes. Results Access, particularly to secondary care, is perceived as complex due to four groups of obstacles with synergetic effects: segmented insurance design with insufficient services covered; insurers' managed care and purchasing mechanisms; providers' networks structural and organizational limitations; and, poor living conditions. Insurers' and providers' values based on economic profit permeate all factors. Variations became apparent between the two geographical areas and insurance schemes. In the urban areas barriers related to market functioning predominate, whereas in the rural areas structural deficiencies in health services are linked to insufficient public funding. While financial obstacles are dominant in the subsidized regime, in the contributory scheme supply shortage prevails, related to insufficient private investment. Conclusions The results show how in the Colombian healthcare system structural and organizational barriers to care access, that are common in developing countries, are widened by both the insurers' use of mechanisms that limit the utilization and the public healthcare providers' change of behavior in a competition environment. They provide evidence to question the promotion of the managed competition model in low and middle-income countries. PMID:21034481

Global Power Play--Competition Winners Light Up the World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tech Directions, 2012

2012-01-01

This year's "Tech Directions" Inventors Competition asked students to come up with ways to provide electricity to remote villages that traditional electrical utilities have not yet reached. This article presents the results of the judging by inventor/electrical engineer Harry T. Roman. The winners are: (1) First Place--Scott Hulver,…

Power industry competition, reengineering, and globalization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hyman, L.S.

1994-07-01

This article presents the views of a vice-president of a financial company on the future of the US electric utility industry. The topics of the article include a historical perspective of the structure of the industry, government regulation, deregulation and competition, rate structures and pricing, effects on stockholders and bondholders, and strategies for growth.

77 FR 50998 - Proposal To Exempt Certain Transactions Involving Not-for-Profit Electric Utilities; Request for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-23

.... Responsible Economic or Financial Innovation and Fair Competition 2. Applicability of CEA Section 4(a) 3... ``promote responsible economic or financial innovation and fair competition'' by exempting any transaction...), provides in full that: In order to promote responsible economic or financial innovation and fair...

Competition, antitrust, and the marketplace for electricity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Szymanski, P.A.

As the electric industry continues its unprecedented restructuring, state public utility regulators must determine which rules and analytical tools will best enable the industry`s participants to compete to provide electricity and its functional components. Even in the early stages of transformation, elements of a competitive marketplace are pervasive: generation markets are battlegrounds for increasingly diverse, numerous, and zealous participants; boundaries delineating traditional service territories are becoming blurred; associations of similarly-situated participants are forming to promote their interests; increased concentration through mergers and joint ventures looms as a possibility; vertically integrated utilities are considering or are being challenged to consider reconfigurationmore » into a more horizontal structure; and generally, the industry`s end-users, its retail customers, are demanding choice. Large industrial customers, groups of residential customers, or entire municipalities are seeking to obtain electric service outside their native electric utilities service territories. These demands for increased consumer choice threaten the legislatively defined franchise rules, which grant monopolies to utilities in exchange for a system of regulation which includes an obligation to serve customers in the service territories both reliably and at reasonable cost. These events foreshadow an industry-wide transition to a customer-driven, competitive system for the provision of electric service in which the price for the service is determined by market-based signals. It would be unrealistic if state utility regulators did not expect commensurate change in the issues they confront and the existing methods of analysis.« less

The impact of deregulation and restructuring: An empirical case study of the electric utility industry from 1998 through 2007

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robinson, Deborah E.

This qualitative study analyzed the residential electricity prices in the competitive U.S. electric market from 1998 to 2007. This analysis revealed that electricity restructuring has not yet resulted in lower prices for the majority of residential consumers in areas open to competition. This study reviewed actual experiences of eight states in the deregulated and restructured electricity markets: Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. The study began with a historical look at the deregulated and restructured electricity market from 1990 to 2007. The electricity market was deregulated to include retail competition and price caps. The results indicated that both had an effect on residential prices. This study used data from the Energy Information Administration and the 8 public utility commissions. Contrary to common expectations, residential electricity costs for consumers have increased rather than decreased.

Current shock: Competition in electricity service

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stuntz, L.G.

1995-07-01

Consumers may not have given much thought to who supplies their electricity, or how, but they should know that a tremendous battle is being waged behind their electrical sockets. Just as several long-distance telecommunication carriers (AT&T, Spring, MCI) now compete to serve each household, so too firms with currently unfamiliar names may one day - in the not-so-distant future - be competing to supply household electricity. Whether, when, and how this happens are questions at the center of a vigorous debate occurring in Washington, in state capitals, and in courtrooms around the United States. Many utilities, small consumer groups, andmore » environmentalists argue that moving to wide-open competition in electricity markets will benefit only the largest customers. With enhanced competition, what becomes of the electric utilities` historic obligation to serve? Customers and society may not be prepared to assume the risk that some customers could become, quite literally, powerless.« less

A Novel TRM Calculation Method by Probabilistic Concept

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Audomvongseree, Kulyos; Yokoyama, Akihiko; Verma, Suresh Chand; Nakachi, Yoshiki

In a new competitive environment, it becomes possible for the third party to access a transmission facility. From this structure, to efficiently manage the utilization of the transmission network, a new definition about Available Transfer Capability (ATC) has been proposed. According to the North American ElectricReliability Council (NERC)’s definition, ATC depends on several parameters, i. e. Total Transfer Capability (TTC), Transmission Reliability Margin (TRM), and Capacity Benefit Margin (CBM). This paper is focused on the calculation of TRM which is one of the security margin reserved for any uncertainty of system conditions. The TRM calculation by probabilistic method is proposed in this paper. Based on the modeling of load forecast error and error in transmission line limitation, various cases of transmission transfer capability and its related probabilistic nature can be calculated. By consideration of the proposed concept of risk analysis, the appropriate required amount of TRM can be obtained. The objective of this research is to provide realistic information on the actual ability of the network which may be an alternative choice for system operators to make an appropriate decision in the competitive market. The advantages of the proposed method are illustrated by application to the IEEJ-WEST10 model system.

Planet X probe: A fresh new look at an old familiar place

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nicholson, James; Obrien, Tom; Brower, Sharon; Canright, Shelley

1988-01-01

Planet X Probe utilizes a Get Away Special (GAS) payload to provide a large student population with a remote Earth sensing experimental package. To provide a cooperative as well as a competitive environment, the effort is targeted at all grade levels and at schools in different geographical regions. LANDSAT capability allows students to investigate the Earth, its physical makeup, its resources, and the impact of man. This project also serves as an educational device to get students to stand back and take a fresh look at their home planet. The key element is to treat the familiar Earth as an unknown planet with knowledge based only on what is observable and provable from the images obtained. Through participation, a whole range of experiences will include: (1) mission planning; (2) research and pilot projects to train teams; (3) identification and recruitment of scientific mentors and dialogue; (4) selection of a student advisory team to be available during the mission; (5) analysis of data and compilation of findings; (6) report preparation, constucted along sound scientific principles; and (7) presentation and defense of findings before a meeting of competitive student groups and scientist in the field.

CrossTalk proposal: Heat acclimatization does improve performance in a cool condition.

PubMed

Minson, Christopher T; Cotter, James D

2016-01-15

We believe available data support the thesis that HA can improve performance in cool conditions, and perhaps with less expense and fewer side-effects than hypoxia (Dempsey & Morgan, 2015), but its utility is unresolved and may be modest or absent in some settings and individuals. A few key issues are becoming clear, however. First, HA must be of sufficient stimulus and duration, with key evidence indicating longer is better. Second, individual variability in response to HA as an ergogenic aid needs to be considered. Third, key training aspects such as speed and intensity may need to be maintained, and ideally performed in a cooler environment to maximize gains and minimize fatigue (including the effects of matched absolute versus relative work rates on adaptations). Alternatively, passive heating should be considered (e.g. immediately after training). Fourth, there is no evidence that HA impairs cool weather performance, and thus HA is a useful strategy when the competitive environmental conditions are potentially hot or unknown. Fifth, much remains unknown about ideal timing for competition following HA and its decay. Lastly, an ergogenic effect of HA has yet to be studied in truly elite athletes.

Population regulation and character displacement in a seasonal environment.

PubMed

Goldberg, Emma E; Lande, Russell; Price, Trevor D

2012-06-01

Competition has negative effects on population size and also drives ecological character displacement, that is, evolutionary divergence to utilize different portions of the resource spectrum. Many species undergo an annual cycle composed of a lean season of intense competition for resources and a breeding season. We use a quantitative genetic model to study the effects of differential reproductive output in the summer or breeding season on character displacement in the winter or nonbreeding season. The model is developed with reference to the avian family of Old World leaf warblers (Phylloscopidae), which breed in the temperate regions of Eurasia and winter in tropical and subtropical regions. Empirical evidence implicates strong winter density-dependent regulation driven by food shortage, but paradoxically, the relative abundance of each species appears to be determined by conditions in the summer. We show how population regulation in the two seasons becomes linked, with higher reproductive output by one species in the summer resulting in its evolution to occupy a larger portion of niche space in the winter. We find short-term ecological processes and longer-term evolutionary processes to have comparable effects on a species population size. This modeling approach can also be applied to other differential effects of productivity across seasons.

Integrating Competition for Food, Hosts, or Mates via Experimental Evolution.

PubMed

Rodrigues, Leonor R; Duncan, Alison B; Clemente, Salomé H; Moya-Laraño, Jordi; Magalhães, Sara

2016-02-01

Competitive interactions shape the evolution of organisms. However, often it is not clear whether competition is the driving force behind the patterns observed. The recent use of experimental evolution in competitive environments can help establish such causality. Unfortunately, this literature is scattered, as competition for food, mates, and hosts are subject areas that belong to different research fields. Here, we group these bodies of literature, extract common processes and patterns concerning the role of competition in shaping evolutionary trajectories, and suggest perspectives stemming from an integrative view of competition across these research fields. This review reinstates the power of experimental evolution in addressing the evolutionary consequences of competition, but highlights potential pitfalls in the design of such experiments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Competitive negotiation: the Virginia SCC's model for procurement of generating capacity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

The Virginia SCC, in approving competitive alternatives to avoided costs under PURPA, rejected competitive bidding in favor of competitive negotiation for power sales contracts. The difference is important, and points in the direction of increased discretion for utilities seeking new generating capacity from independents. The distinction between competitive bidding, and competitive negotiation, in a nutshell, is that in a bid, the low price bidder wins. In a negotiation, the offeror of the most-meritorious proposals are ranked, and an attempt to reach agreement on price is made with the high-ranked offeror. Only if there is no agreement on price will themore » most-meritorious bid be rejected, and negotiations with the offeror of the next best proposal begun. The Virginia Public Procurement Act, Sec. II-37, Definitions, Parts 1, 2, and 3.a. is included.« less

Utility deregulation and AMR technology. [Automated Meter Reading

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moore, G.

1991-06-15

This article reviews the effects of deregulation on other utilities and services and examines how the electric utilities can avoid the worst of these effects and capitalize of the best aspects of competition in achieving marketing excellence. The article presents deregulation as a customer service and underscores the need for utilities to learn to compete aggressively and intelligently and provide additional services available through technology such as automated meter reading.

Innovative electricity marketing. Utilities must rethink how they can meet their customers' needs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pierobon, J.R.

1994-04-15

Tradition-bound utility commissioners and electricity providers who believe electric utilities are insulated from competition until retail wheeling arrives should carefully assess just how quickly competition is remaking the electric power marketplace. The widely predicted industry evolution spawned by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 is becoming nothing less than a revolution. Some utilities and their regulators still don't seem to grasp the sea-change taking place. Others are genuinely rethinking how utilities can serve their most valued customers and try to win new ones-even if it means taking customers away from another utility. Electric utilities that respond by understanding, communicating, andmore » meeting needs in the marketplace will likely thrive in the new era. Those that don't are tempting fate. And fate could arrive before a full-fledged retail wheeling proposal becomes law. Regulators fixated on retail wheeling per se or determined to defend the status quo are missing the point. Large users of electricity certainly want retail wheeling. They're applying pressure wherever and however they can to win it. But they're not waiting until they get retail wheeling to flex their purchasing clout. Some state commissioners need to recognize this and empower utilities to respond.« less

Pipelining in a changing competitive environment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jones, E.G.; Wishart, D.M.

1996-12-31

The changing competitive environment for the pipeline industry presents a broad spectrum of new challenges and opportunities: international cooperation; globalization of opportunities, organizations and competition; and integrated systems approach to system configuration, financing, contracting strategy, materials sourcing, and operations; cutting edge and emerging technologies; adherence to high standards of environmental protection; an emphasis on safety; innovative approaches to project financing; and advances in technology and programs to maintain the long term, cost effective integrity of operating pipeline systems. These challenges and opportunities are partially a result of the increasingly competitive nature of pipeline development and the public`s intolerance to incidentsmore » of pipeline failure. A creative systems approach to these challenges is often the key to the project moving ahead. This usually encompasses collaboration among users of the pipeline, pipeline owners and operators, international engineering and construction companies, equipment and materials suppliers, in-country engineers and constructors, international lending agencies and financial institutions.« less

The Detrimental Effects of Oxytocin-Induced Conformity on Dishonesty in Competition.

PubMed

Aydogan, Gökhan; Jobst, Andrea; D'Ardenne, Kimberlee; Müller, Norbert; Kocher, Martin G

2017-06-01

Justifications may promote unethical behavior because they constitute a convenient loophole through which people can gain from immoral behavior and preserve a positive self-image at the same time. A justification that is widely used is rooted in conformity: Unethical choices become more permissible because one's peers are expected to make the same unethical choices. In the current study, we tested whether an exogenous alteration of conformity led to a lower inclination to adhere to a widely accepted norm (i.e., honesty) under the pressure of competition. We took advantage of the well-known effects of intranasally applied oxytocin on affiliation, in-group conformity, and in-group favoritism in humans. We found that conformity was enhanced by oxytocin, and this enhancement had a detrimental effect on honesty in a competitive environment but not in a noncompetitive environment. Our findings contribute to recent evidence showing that competition may lead to unethical behavior and erode moral values.

Procurement engineering - the productivity factor

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bargerstock, S.B.

1993-01-01

The industry is several years on the road to implementation of the Nuclear Management and Resources Council (NUMARC) initiatives on commercial-grade item dedication and procurement. Utilities have taken several approaches to involve engineering in the procurement process. A common result for the approaches is the additional operations and maintenance (O M) cost imposed by the added resource requirements. Procurement engineering productivity is a key element in controlling this business area. Experience shows that 400 to 500% improvements in productivity are possible with a 2-yr period. Improving the productivity of the procurement engineering function is important in today's competitive utility environment.more » Procurement engineering typically involves four distinct technical evaluation responsibilities along with several administrative areas. Technical evaluations include the functionally based safety classification of replacement components and parts (lacking a master parts list), the determination of dedication requirements for safety-related commercial-grade items, the preparation of a procurement specification to maintain the licensed design bases, and the equivalency evaluation of alternate items not requiring the design-change process. Administrative duties include obtaining technical review of vendor-supplied documentation, identifying obsolete parts and components, resolving material nonconformances, initiating the design-change process for replacement items (as needed), and providing technical support to O M. Although most utilities may not perform or require all the noted activities, a large percentage will apply to each utility station.« less

Relationship between urban eco-environment and competitiveness with the background of globalization: statistical explanation based on industry type newly classified with environment demand and environment pressure.

PubMed

Kang, Xiao-guang; Ma, Qing-Bin

2005-01-01

Within the global urban system, the statistical relationship between urban eco-environment (UE) and urban competitiveness (UC) (RUEC) is researched. Data showed that there is a statistically inverted-U relationship between UE and UC. Eco-environmental factor is put into the classification of industries, and gets six industrial types by two indexes viz. industries' eco-environmental demand and pressure. The statistical results showed that there is a strong relationship, for new industrial classification, between the changes of industrial structure and evolvement of UE. The drive mechanism of the evolvement of urban eco-environment, with human demand and global work division was analyzed. The conclusion is that the development stratege, industrial policies of cities, and environmental policies fo cities must be fit with their ranks among the global urban system. At the era of globalization, so far as the environmental policies, their rationality could not be assessed with the level of strictness, but it can enhance cities' competitiveness when they are fit with cities' capabilities to attract and control some sections of the industry's value-chain. None but these kinds of environmental policies can probably enhance the UC.

Utilization of steel in industrialized highway bridge systems.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1974-01-01

The space frame concept presented in this report represents the results of an effort to minimize on-site construction time while utilizing steel to provide a high quality but competitive type of bridge structure. A necessary part of the effort was th...

Does polyembryony confer a competitive advantage to the invasive perennial vine Vincetoxicum rossicum (Apocynaceae)?

PubMed

Blanchard, Megan L; Barney, Jacob N; Averill, Kristine M; Mohler, Charles L; Ditommaso, Antonio

2010-02-01

Determining which traits may allow some introduced plant species to become invasive in their new environment continues to be a key question in invasion biology. Vincetoxicum rossicum is an invasive, perennial vine colonizing natural and seminatural habitats primarily in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. More than half its seeds exhibit polyembryony, a relatively uncommon condition in which a single seed produces multiple seedlings. For evaluating the potential consequences of polyembryony on invasiveness, V. rossicum plants derived from seeds of three embryonic classes-singlets, doublets, and triplets (one, two, and three seedlings per seed, respectively)-were paired in all combinations intraspecifically and with the co-occurring native herbs Solidago canadensis and Asclepias syriaca in a greenhouse study. Vincetoxicum rossicum biomass was 25-55% greater and follicle production 55-100% greater under intraspecific competition compared with interspecific competition. However, within a competitive environment, follicle production varied little. Regardless of competitive environment, V. rossicum originating from seeds with a greater number of embryos typically performed no better than plants arising from seed with fewer embryos (singlets = doublets = triplets)-except intraspecifically where doublets outperformed singlets, and with S. canadensis where triplets outperformed singlets. Our findings suggest that overall performance and fitness of V. rossicum is higher in monocultures than in mixed stands and that its ability to invade new habitats may not be attributable to the production of polyembryonic seeds.

Retail food environments, shopping experiences, First Nations and the provincial Norths.

PubMed

Burnett, Kristin; Skinner, Kelly; Hay, Travis; LeBlanc, Joseph; Chambers, Lori

2017-10-01

This paper looks at the market food environments of First Nations communities located in the provincial Norths by examining the potential retail competition faced by the North West Company (NWC) and by reporting on the grocery shopping experiences of people living in northern Canada. We employed two methodological approaches to assess northern retail food environments. First, we mapped food retailers in the North to examine the breadth of retail competition in the provincial Norths, focussing specifically on those communities without year-round road access. Second, we surveyed people living in communities in northern Canada about their retail and shopping experiences. Fifty-four percent of communities in the provincial Norths and Far North without year-round road access did not have a grocery store that competed with the NWC. The provinces with the highest percentage of northern communities without retail competition were Ontario (87%), Saskatchewan (83%) and Manitoba (72%). Respondents to the survey (n = 92) expressed concern about their shopping experiences in three main areas: the cost of food, food quality and freshness, and availability of specific foods. There is limited retail competition in the provincial Norths. In Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario, the NWC has no store competition in at least 70% of northern communities. Consumers living in northern Canada find it difficult to afford nutritious foods and would like access to a wider selection of perishable foods in good condition.

Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Effort

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-03-01

Energy – an electrical utility company. • 2016 : ODIN Security – a small aerospace and defense contracting firm Approved for Public Release...to secure supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) networks. Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited 7 During the 2016 NCCDC...COLLEGIATE CYBER DEFENSE COMPETITION EFFORT UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO MARCH 2018 FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE

A Case Study of an Expert Problem Poser for Mathematics Competitions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kontorovich, Igor'; Koichu, Boris

2016-01-01

This paper is concerned with organizational principles of a pool of familiar problems of expert problem posers and the ways by which they are utilized for creating new problems. The presented case of Leo is part of a multiple-case study with expert problem posers for mathematics competitions. We present and inductively analyze the data collected…

Competitive Research Grants and Their Impact on Career Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bloch, Carter; Graversen, Ebbe Krogh; Pedersen, Heidi Skovgaard

2014-01-01

The role of competitive funds as a source of funding for academic research has increased in many countries. For the individual researcher, the receipt of a grant can influence both scientific production and career paths. This paper focuses on the importance of the receipt of a research grant for researchers' academic career paths utilizing a…

Organizational Strategy and Business Environment Effects Based on a Computation Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reklitis, Panagiotis; Konstantopoulos, Nikolaos; Trivellas, Panagiotis

2007-12-01

According to many researchers of organizational theory, a great number of problems encountered by the manufacturing firms are due to their ineffectiveness to respond to significant changes of their external environment and align their competitive strategy accordingly. From this point of view, the pursuit of the appropriate generic strategy is vital for firms facing a dynamic and highly competitive environment. In the present paper, we adopt Porter's typology to operationalise organizational strategy (cost leadership, innovative and marketing differentiation, and focus) considering changes in the external business environment (dynamism, complexity and munificence). Although simulation of social events is a quite difficult task, since there are so many considerations (not all well understood) involved, in the present study we developed a dynamic system based on the conceptual framework of strategy-environment associations.

Characterization of the binding of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole to bovine serum albumin.

PubMed

Teng, Yue; Zou, Luyi; Huang, Ming; Zong, Wansong

2015-04-01

2-Mercaptobenzimidazole (MBI) is widely utilized as a corrosion inhibitor, copper-plating brightener and rubber accelerator. The residue of MBI in the environment is potentially harmful to human health. In this article, the interaction of MBI with bovine serum albumin (BSA) was explored using spectroscopic and molecular docking methods under physiological conditions. The positively charged MBI can spontaneously bind with the negatively charged BSA through electrostatic forces with one binding site. The site marker competition experiments and the molecular docking study revealed that MBI bound into site II (subdomain IIIA) of BSA, which further led to some secondary structure and microenvironmental changes of BSA. This work provides useful information on understanding the toxicological actions of MBI at the molecular level. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

VAR and generalized impulse response analysis of manufacturing unit labor costs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ewing, Bradley T.; Thompson, Mark A.

2008-04-01

This paper examines the relationship among manufacturing unit labor costs in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The analysis is conducted within the context of an economic system utilizing the recently developed method of generalized impulse response analysis to simulate the responses of the cost series to disturbances. The results indicate that, while unit labor costs do not share a common stochastic trend, there are significant responses in the unit labor costs of each country to shocks in the costs of other countries that are not captured by standard interpretation of the multiple-equation model results. The findings indicate the presence of significant linkages among unit labor costs in the countries studied. The results are consistent with the economic environment of manufacturing operations being characterized by a competitive, integrated marketplace.

Physician outcome measurement: review and proposed model.

PubMed

Siha, S

1998-01-01

As health care moves from a free-for-service environment to a capitated arena, outcome measurements must change. ABC Children's Medical Center is challenged with developing comprehensive outcome measures for an employed physician group. An extensive literature review validates that physician outcomes must move beyond revenue production and measure all aspects of care delivery. The proposed measurement model for this physician group is a trilogy model. It includes measures of cost, quality, and service. While these measures can be examined separately, it is imperative to understand their integration in determining an organization's competitive advantage. The recommended measurements for the physician group must be consistent with the overall organizational goals. The long-term impact will be better utilization of resources. This will result in the most cost effective, quality care for the health care consumer.

40 CFR 35.342 - Competitive process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

....342 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY GRANTS AND OTHER FEDERAL ASSISTANCE STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Environmental Program Grants Pollution Prevention State Grants (section 6605) § 35.342 Competitive process. EPA Regions award Pollution Prevention State Grants to State programs...

40 CFR 35.342 - Competitive process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

....342 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY GRANTS AND OTHER FEDERAL ASSISTANCE STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Environmental Program Grants Pollution Prevention State Grants (section 6605) § 35.342 Competitive process. EPA Regions award Pollution Prevention State Grants to State programs...

40 CFR 35.661 - Competitive process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

....661 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY GRANTS AND OTHER FEDERAL ASSISTANCE STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Environmental Program Grants for Tribes Pollution Prevention Grants (section 6605) § 35.661 Competitive process. EPA Regions award Pollution Prevention Grant funds to Tribes and...

40 CFR 35.661 - Competitive process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

....661 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY GRANTS AND OTHER FEDERAL ASSISTANCE STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Environmental Program Grants for Tribes Pollution Prevention Grants (section 6605) § 35.661 Competitive process. EPA Regions award Pollution Prevention Grant funds to Tribes and...

Mutualism, resource competition and opposing movements among Turkish organizations in Amsterdam and Berlin, 1965-2000.

PubMed

Vermeulen, Floris

2013-09-01

This article seeks to understand environmental effects on associational interdependencies, be they competitive or collaborative, in a polarized organizational population. To do so, it builds on the density-dependent model and the ecology of ideologies. Especially interested in the effect of context on density-dependent processes, I compare different Turkish ideological movements in Amsterdam and Berlin. Amsterdam represents an open and supportive environment for such movements, whereas Berlin constitutes a more closed and hostile one. By analysing the founding and disbanding rates of Turkish immigrant organizations in Amsterdam and Berlin during the period 1965-2000, the article demonstrates how the increasing density of Turkish ideologies has affected interdependencies in two main ways: by heightening competition, particularly between ideologically similar organizations, and by increasing counter activities between opposing movements. It also shows that the influence of context is limited. An open environment does not significantly influence the vitality rates of ideologies or further collaboration among or between them. On the contrary, it seemingly increases competition and fragmentation because more resources and opportunities are available. More signs of collaboration and mutualism are found in Berlin's closed environment. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2013.

Spatial Structures of the Environment and of Dispersal Impact Species Distribution in Competitive Metacommunities

PubMed Central

Ai, Dexiecuo; Gravel, Dominique; Chu, Chengjin; Wang, Gang

2013-01-01

The correspondence between species distribution and the environment depends on species’ ability to track favorable environmental conditions (via dispersal) and to maintain competitive hierarchy against the constant influx of migrants (mass effect) and demographic stochasticity (ecological drift). Here we report a simulation study of the influence of landscape structure on species distribution. We consider lottery competition for space in a spatially heterogeneous environment, where the landscape is represented as a network of localities connected by dispersal. We quantified the contribution of neutrality and species sorting to their spatial distribution. We found that neutrality increases and the strength of species-sorting decreases with the centrality of a community in the landscape when the average dispersal among communities is low, whereas the opposite was found at elevated dispersal. We also found that the strength of species-sorting increases with environmental heterogeneity. Our results illustrate that spatial structure of the environment and of dispersal must be taken into account for understanding species distribution. We stress the importance of spatial geographic structure on the relative importance of niche vs. neutral processes in controlling community dynamics. PMID:23874815

Spatial structures of the environment and of dispersal impact species distribution in competitive metacommunities.

PubMed

Ai, Dexiecuo; Gravel, Dominique; Chu, Chengjin; Wang, Gang

2013-01-01

The correspondence between species distribution and the environment depends on species' ability to track favorable environmental conditions (via dispersal) and to maintain competitive hierarchy against the constant influx of migrants (mass effect) and demographic stochasticity (ecological drift). Here we report a simulation study of the influence of landscape structure on species distribution. We consider lottery competition for space in a spatially heterogeneous environment, where the landscape is represented as a network of localities connected by dispersal. We quantified the contribution of neutrality and species sorting to their spatial distribution. We found that neutrality increases and the strength of species-sorting decreases with the centrality of a community in the landscape when the average dispersal among communities is low, whereas the opposite was found at elevated dispersal. We also found that the strength of species-sorting increases with environmental heterogeneity. Our results illustrate that spatial structure of the environment and of dispersal must be taken into account for understanding species distribution. We stress the importance of spatial geographic structure on the relative importance of niche vs. neutral processes in controlling community dynamics.

Pharmaceutical Advertising and Medicare Part D

PubMed Central

Lakdawalla, Darius; Sood, Neeraj; Gu, Qian

2013-01-01

We explore how and to what extent prescription drug insurance expansions affects incentives for pharmaceutical advertising. When insurance expansions make markets more profitable, firms respond by boosting advertising. Theory suggests this effect will be magnified in the least competitive drug classes, where firms internalize a larger share of the benefits from advertising. Empirically, we find that the implementation of Part D coincides with a 14% to 19% increase in total advertising expenditures. This effect is indeed concentrated in the least competitive drug classes. The additional advertising raised utilization among non-elderly patients outside the Part D program by about 3.6%. This is roughly half of the direct utilization effect of Part D on elderly beneficiaries. The results suggest the presence of considerable spillover effects from publicly subsidized prescription drug insurance on the utilization and welfare of consumers outside the program. PMID:24308884

Increases in brain activity during social competition predict decreases in working memory performance and later recall.

PubMed

DiMenichi, Brynne C; Tricomi, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

In our fMRI experiment, participants completed a learning task in both a noncompetitive and a socially competitive learning environment. Despite reporting a preference for completing the task while competing, participants remembered significantly more during the task and later recalled more from the noncompetitive learning environment. Furthermore, during working memory maintenance, there was performance-related deactivation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the precuneus/PCC. During feedback presentation, there was greater activation in the mPFC and the precuneus/PCC while competing. Differential activation in the precuneus/PCC predicted worse later recall for information learned competitively. Since previous research suggests that the mPFC is involved in social-referencing, while the precuneus/PCC is implicated in off-task thoughts, our results suggest that receiving feedback regarding competition produces more activation in brain regions implicated in social interaction, as well as task distraction. While competition may make a task more enjoyable, the goal of winning may distract from maximizing performance. Hum Brain Mapp 38:457-471, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Is parental competitive ability in winter negatively affected by previous springs' family size?

PubMed

Fokkema, Rienk W; Ubels, Richard; Tinbergen, Joost M

2017-03-01

Reproductive behavior cannot be understood without taking the local level of competition into account. Experimental work in great tits ( Parus major ) showed that (1) a survival cost of reproduction was paid in environments with high levels of competition during the winter period and (2) experimentally manipulated family size negatively affected the ability of parents to compete for preferred breeding boxes in the next spring. The fact that survival was affected in winter suggests that the competitive ability of parents in winter may also be affected by previous reproductive effort. In this study, we aim to investigate whether (1) such carryover effects of family size on the ability of parents to compete for resources in the winter period occurred and (2) this could explain the occurrence of a survival cost of reproduction under increased competition. During two study years, we manipulated the size of in total 168 great tit broods. Next, in winter, we induced competition among the parents by drastically reducing the availability of roosting boxes in their local environment for one week. Contrary to our expectation, we found no negative effect of family size manipulation on the probability of parents to obtain a roosting box. In line with previous work, we did find that a survival cost of reproduction was paid only in plots in which competition for roosting boxes was shortly increased. Our findings thus add to the scarce experimental evidence that survival cost of reproduction are paid under higher levels of local competition but this could not be linked to a reduced competitive ability of parents in winter.

Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Competitive Beverage and Food Guidelines: Do Elementary School Administrators Know about Them and Do They Report Implementing Them?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam; Turner, Lindsey; Chaloupka, Frank J.

2012-01-01

Background: The availability of competitive foods in schools is a modifiable factor in efforts to prevent childhood obesity. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation launched the Healthy Schools Program in 2006 to encourage schools to create healthier food environments, including the adoption of nutritional guidelines for competitive beverages and…

[Different responses of growth and root development of Schima superba provenance to the adjacent plant competition in different nutrient conditions].

PubMed

Yao, Jia Bao; Chu, Xiu Li; Zhou, Zhi Chun; Tong, Jian She; Wang, Hui; Yu, Jia Zhong

2017-04-18

Growth and root development of three Schima superba seedling provenances were influenced by adjacent plant competition in the homogeneous and heterogeneous nutrient environment, which revealed the reasons of S. superba competition differences in the different genotypes. The results indicated that, compared with homogeneous nutrient environment, all three S. superba provenances showed higher seedling height, more dry matter accumulation, and significant root proliferation in heterogeneous nutrient environment. Under heterogeneous nutrient environment, the seedlings of S. superba from Jian'ou of Fujian exhibited higher competitive advantage in growth than that of S. superba from Longquan of Zhejiang and Xinfeng of Jiangxi, especially standing out under mixed cultivation with seedlings of Cunninghamia lanceolata. Under mixed cultivation, the root growth parameters of S. superba such as root length, root surface area and volume increased by 20.4%-69.0% compared with the single plant, which enhanced the foraging ability and growth advantage. To some extent, however, the root development in Longquan of Zhejiang and Xinfeng of Jiangxi was suppressed when subjected to the pattern of mixed cultivation. Besides, the root growth and development of all three S. superba provenances were suppressed, which might be due to their root self-recognition in the pattern of mono cultivation. Therefore, the seedling growth in Jian'ou of Fujian decreased significantly, but seedling growth in Longquan of Zhejiang and Xinfeng of Jiangxi was not suppressed, even increased evidently, as their root physiological plasticity might play the crucial role in seedling growth. Hence the S. superba from Jian'ou of Fujian with high foraging efficiency and competition ability was suggested with the method of mixed forestation to improve the S. superba forest plantation productivity.

Comparing pre- and post-copulatory mate competition using social network analysis in wild crickets

PubMed Central

Fisher, David N.; Rodríguez-Muñoz, Rolando

2016-01-01

Sexual selection results from variation in success at multiple stages in the mating process, including competition before and after mating. The relationship between these forms of competition, such as whether they trade-off or reinforce one another, influences the role of sexual selection in evolution. However, the relationship between these 2 forms of competition is rarely quantified in the wild. We used video cameras to observe competition among male field crickets and their matings in the wild. We characterized pre- and post-copulatory competition as 2 networks of competing individuals. Social network analysis then allowed us to determine 1) the effectiveness of precopulatory competition for avoiding postcopulatory competition, 2) the potential for divergent mating strategies, and 3) whether increased postcopulatory competition reduces the apparent reproductive benefits of male promiscuity. We found 1) limited effectiveness of precopulatory competition for avoiding postcopulatory competition; 2) males do not specifically engage in only 1 type of competition; and 3) promiscuous individuals tend to mate with each other, which will tend to reduce variance in reproductive success in the population and highlights the trade-off inherent in mate guarding. Our results provide novel insights into the works of sexual competition in the wild. Furthermore, our study demonstrates the utility of using network analyses to study competitive interactions, even in species lacking obvious social structure. PMID:27174599

Collective Phase in Resource Competition in a Highly Diverse Ecosystem.

PubMed

Tikhonov, Mikhail; Monasson, Remi

2017-01-27

Organisms shape their own environment, which in turn affects their survival. This feedback becomes especially important for communities containing a large number of species; however, few existing approaches allow studying this regime, except in simulations. Here, we use methods of statistical physics to analytically solve a classic ecological model of resource competition introduced by MacArthur in 1969. We show that the nonintuitive phenomenology of highly diverse ecosystems includes a phase where the environment constructed by the community becomes fully decoupled from the outside world.

Student Drop Tower Competitions: Dropping In a Microgravity Environment (DIME) and What If No Gravity? (WING)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Nancy R.; Stocker, Dennis P.; DeLombard, Richard

2011-01-01

This paper describes two student competition programs that allow student teams to conceive a science or engineering experiment for a microgravity environment. Selected teams design and build their experimental hardware, conduct baseline tests, and ship their experiment to NASA where it is operated in the 2.2 Second Drop Tower. The hardware and acquired data is provided to the teams after the tests are conducted so that the teams can prepare their final reports about their findings.

Investigating the Effect of Cooperative Learning and Competitive Learning Strategies on the English Vocabulary Development of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fekri, Neda

2016-01-01

The current study investigated the effect of cooperative and competitive learning strategies on the acquisition of English vocabulary development by Iranian EFL intermediate learners. In addition, it explored what type of theses strategies was more effective. In such doing, utilizing an Oxford Placement Test (OPT), 45 out of 77 Iranian EFL…

Comparative Analysis of OECD Member Countries' Competitive Advantage in National Human Resource Development System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oh, Hunseok; Choi, Yeseul; Choi, Myungweon

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess, evaluate, and compare the competitive advantages of the human resource development systems of advanced countries. The Global Human Resource Development Index was utilized for this study, since it has been validated through an expert panel's content review and analytic hierarchy process. Using a sample of 34…

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-24

Energy levels are high in the RoboPit as teams prepare for NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. arel using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-23

NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana welcomes participants to the agency's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-24

A robotic miner digs in the mining arena during NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Table manners.

PubMed

Jahn, D

2001-01-01

Although hospitals today exist in a competitive environment, the recent Survivor television program is not the best model. It has pushed competition to the extreme: the winner takes all at any cost. It is whether or not you win the game, and no holds barred on how you play.

Multiscale Modeling of Microbial Communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blanchard, Andrew

Although bacteria are single-celled organisms, they exist in nature primarily in the form of complex communities, participating in a vast array of social interactions through regulatory gene networks. The social interactions between individual cells drive the emergence of community structures, resulting in an intricate relationship across multiple spatiotemporal scales. Here, I present my work towards developing and applying the tools necessary to model the complex dynamics of bacterial communities. In Chapter 2, I utilize a reaction-diffusion model to determine the population dynamics for a population with two species. One species (CDI+) utilizes contact dependent inhibition to kill the other sensitive species (CDI-). The competition can produce diverse patterns, including extinction, coexistence, and localized aggregation. The emergence, relative abundance, and characteristic features of these patterns are collectively determined by the competitive benefit of CDI and its growth disadvantage for a given rate of population diffusion. The results provide a systematic and statistical view of CDI-based bacterial population competition, expanding the spectrum of our knowledge about CDI systems and possibly facilitating new experimental tests for a deeper understanding of bacterial interactions. In the following chapter, I present a systematic computational survey on the relationship between social interaction types and population structures for two-species communities by developing and utilizing a hybrid computational framework that combines discrete element techniques with reaction-diffusion equations. The impact of deleterious and beneficial interactions on the community are quantified. Deleterious interactions generate an increased variance in relative abundance, a drastic decrease in surviving lineages, and a rough expanding front. In contrast, beneficial interactions contribute to a reduced variance in relative abundance, an enhancement in lineage number, and a smooth expanding front. More specifically, mutualism promotes spatial homogeneity and population robustness while competition increases spatial segregation and population fluctuations. To examine the generality of these findings, a large set of initial conditions with varying density and species abundance was tested and analyzed. The results and the computational framework presented provide the basis for further explorations of individual based simulations of bacterial communities. For Chapter 4, I consider the role of gene regulation in shaping the outcome of competition between a bacteriocin (i.e. toxin) producing and sensitive strain. In natural systems, bacteriocin production is often conditional, governed by underlying quorum sensing regulatory circuitry. By developing an ordinary differential equation (ODE) model integrating population dynamics with molecular regulation, we find that the ecological contribution of bacteriocin production can be positive or negative, determined by the tradeoff between the benefit of bacteriocins in mediating competition and the fitness cost due to metabolic load. Interestingly, under the naturally occurring scenario where bacteriocin production has a high cost, density-dependent synthesis is more advantageous than constitutive synthesis, which offers a quantitative interpretation for the wide prevalence of density-related bacteriocin production in nature. By incorporating the modeling framework presented in Chapter 3, the results of the ODE model were extended to the spatial setting, providing ecological insights into the costs and benefits of bacteriocin synthesis in competitive environments. For the final research chapter, I consider the impact of growth coupling on protein production at both the single cell and population scales. The same machinery (e.g. ribosomes) and resources (e.g. amino acids and ATP) are used within cells to produce both endogenous (host) and exogenous (circuit) proteins. Thus, the introduction of a gene circuit generates a metabolic burden on the cell which can slow its growth rate relative to the wild type. Building off of the computational framework introduced in Chapter 3 with single cell resolution, I utilize deterministic and stochastic simulations to characterize the changes in protein production due to host-circuit coupling for a simple gene regulatory architecture. Analytical arguments and simulation results show that incorporating growth can lead to drastic changes in both the steady state and time scales for protein production at the single cell and population level. Furthermore, host-circuit coupling can induce bimodality at the population level well outside the bistable region for single cell dynamics.

Developmental temperature affects the expression of ejaculatory traits and the outcome of sperm competition in Callosobruchus maculatus.

PubMed

Vasudeva, R; Deeming, D C; Eady, P E

2014-09-01

The outcome of post-copulatory sexual selection is determined by a complex set of interactions between the primary reproductive traits of two or more males and their interactions with the reproductive traits of the female. Recently, a number of studies have shown the primary reproductive traits of both males and females express phenotypic plasticity in response to the thermal environment experienced during ontogeny. However, how plasticity in these traits affects the dynamics of sperm competition remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate plasticity in testes size, sperm size and sperm number in response to developmental temperature in the bruchid beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. Males reared at the highest temperature eclosed at the smallest body size and had the smallest absolute and relative testes size. Males reared at both the high- and low-temperature extremes produced both fewer and smaller sperm than males reared at intermediate temperatures. In the absence of sperm competition, developmental temperature had no effect on male fertility. However, under conditions of sperm competition, males reared at either temperature extreme were less competitive in terms of sperm offence (P(2)), whereas those reared at the lowest temperature were less competitive in terms of sperm defence (P(1)). This suggests the developmental pathways that regulate the phenotypic expression of these ejaculatory traits are subject to both natural and sexual selection: natural selection in the pre-ejaculatory environment and sexual selection in the post-ejaculatory environment. In nature, thermal heterogeneity during development is commonplace. Therefore, we suggest the interplay between ecology and development represents an important, yet hitherto underestimated component of male fitness via post-copulatory sexual selection. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2014 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Retail food environments, shopping experiences, First Nations and the provincial Norths

PubMed Central

Kristin, Burnett; Kelly, Skinner; Travis, Hay; Joseph, LeBlanc; Lori, Chambers

2017-01-01

Abstract Introduction: This paper looks at the market food environments of First Nations communities located in the provincial Norths by examining the potential retail competition faced by the North West Company (NWC) and by reporting on the grocery shopping experiences of people living in northern Canada. Methods: We employed two methodological approaches to assess northern retail food environments. First, we mapped food retailers in the North to examine the breadth of retail competition in the provincial Norths, focussing specifically on those communities without year-round road access. Second, we surveyed people living in communities in northern Canada about their retail and shopping experiences. Results: Fifty-four percent of communities in the provincial Norths and Far North without year-round road access did not have a grocery store that competed with the NWC. The provinces with the highest percentage of northern communities without retail competition were Ontario (87%), Saskatchewan (83%) and Manitoba (72%). Respondents to the survey (n = 92) expressed concern about their shopping experiences in three main areas: the cost of food, food quality and freshness, and availability of specific foods. Conclusion: There is limited retail competition in the provincial Norths. In Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario, the NWC has no store competition in at least 70% of northern communities. Consumers living in northern Canada find it difficult to afford nutritious foods and would like access to a wider selection of perishable foods in good condition. PMID:29043760

Augmented Lagrange Hopfield network for solving economic dispatch problem in competitive environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vo, Dieu Ngoc; Ongsakul, Weerakorn; Nguyen, Khai Phuc

2012-11-01

This paper proposes an augmented Lagrange Hopfield network (ALHN) for solving economic dispatch (ED) problem in the competitive environment. The proposed ALHN is a continuous Hopfield network with its energy function based on augmented Lagrange function for efficiently dealing with constrained optimization problems. The ALHN method can overcome the drawbacks of the conventional Hopfield network such as local optimum, long computational time, and linear constraints. The proposed method is used for solving the ED problem with two revenue models of revenue based on payment for power delivered and payment for reserve allocated. The proposed ALHN has been tested on two systems of 3 units and 10 units for the two considered revenue models. The obtained results from the proposed methods are compared to those from differential evolution (DE) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) methods. The result comparison has indicated that the proposed method is very efficient for solving the problem. Therefore, the proposed ALHN could be a favorable tool for ED problem in the competitive environment.

Experimental and theoretical study of microalgal competition in laboratory and natural ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pisman, T. I.; Somova, L. A.

An important aspect of studying mixed cultures of microalgae is the artificial ecosystems containing algal culture as a regeneration link and a source of vegetable substances. The peculiarities of studying the stability of microalgae mixed cultures in the laboratory and natural environment have been considered in the work. The role of factors most essentially affecting the species structure of phytoplankton community (temperature factor, light intensity, pH environments, elements of mineral nutrition, algal metabolites, predation and fluctuation of environmental conditions) has been displayed. As a result of experimental and theoretical modelling of the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus quadricauda competition under limitation on nitrogen, the impossibility of their co-existence has been revealed. Under these conditions Chl. vulgaris turned out to be less competitive than Sc. quadricauda. The influence of the ratio of biogenic elements concentration in the environment, which should be recognized as an independent regulatory factor limiting growth of populations in the community and, thus affecting its structure, has been analyzed.

Functional and numerical responses of shrews to competition vary with mouse density.

PubMed

Eckrich, Carolyn A; Flaherty, Elizabeth A; Ben-David, Merav

2018-01-01

For decades, ecologists have debated the importance of biotic interactions (e.g., competition) and abiotic factors in regulating populations. Competition can influence patterns of distribution, abundance, and resource use in many systems but remains difficult to measure. We quantified competition between two sympatric small mammals, Keen's mice (Peromyscus keeni) and dusky shrews (Sorex monticolus), in four habitat types on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. We related shrew density to that of mice using standardized regression models while accounting for habitat variables in each year from 2010-2012, during which mice populations peaked (2011) and then crashed (2012). Additionally, we measured dietary overlap and segregation using stable isotope analysis and kernel utilization densities and estimated the change in whole community energy consumption among years. We observed an increase in densities of dusky shrews after mice populations crashed in 2012 as expected under competitive release. In addition, competition coefficients revealed that the influence of Keen's mice was dependent on their density. Also in 2012, shrew diets shifted, indicating that they were able to exploit resources previously used by mice. Nonetheless, increases in shrew numbers only partially compensated for the community energy consumption because, as insectivores, they are unlikely to utilize all food types consumed by their competitors. In pre-commercially thinned stands, which exhibit higher diversity of resources compared to other habitat types, shrew populations were less affected by changes in mice densities. These spatially and temporally variable interactions between unlikely competitors, observed in a relatively simple, high-latitude island ecosystem, highlight the difficulty in assessing the role of biotic factors in structuring communities.

Pharmaceutical advertising and Medicare Part D.

PubMed

Lakdawalla, Darius; Sood, Neeraj; Gu, Qian

2013-12-01

We explore how and to what extent prescription drug insurance expansions affect incentives for pharmaceutical advertising. When insurance expansions make markets more profitable, firms respond by boosting advertising. Theory suggests this effect will be magnified in the least competitive drug classes, where firms internalize a larger share of the benefits from advertising. Empirically, we find that the implementation of Part D coincides with a 14-19% increase in total advertising expenditures. This effect is indeed concentrated in the least competitive drug classes. The additional advertising raised utilization among non-elderly patients outside the Part D program by about 3.6%. This is roughly half of the direct utilization effect of Part D on elderly beneficiaries. The results suggest the presence of considerable spillover effects from publicly subsidized prescription drug insurance on the utilization and welfare of consumers outside the program. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

32 CFR 508.1 - Utilization of Army bands.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... PUBLIC RELATIONS COMPETITION WITH CIVILIAN BANDS § 508.1 Utilization of Army bands. (a) General... Secretary of Defense. The authority to determine whether the use of an Army band at a public gathering is... Forces, veterans, and patriotic organizations. (3) At public rallies and parades intended to stimulate...

5 CFR 1830.6 - Exemptions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... unfair competitive advantage or diminish the utility of established examination procedures. OSC also... prohibited personnel practice, unlawful political activity, whistleblower disclosure, Uniformed Services...

Maternal effects in the highly communal sociable weaver may exacerbate brood reduction and prepare offspring for a competitive social environment.

PubMed

van Dijk, René E; Eising, Corine M; Merrill, Richard M; Karadas, Filiz; Hatchwell, Ben; Spottiswoode, Claire N

2013-02-01

Maternal effects can influence offspring phenotype with short- and long-term consequences. Yet, how the social environment may influence egg composition is not well understood. Here, we investigate how laying order and social environment predict maternal effects in the sociable weaver, Philetairus socius, a species that lives in massive communal nests which may be occupied by only a few to 100+ individuals in a single nest. This range of social environments is associated with variation in a number of phenotypic and life-history traits. We investigate whether maternal effects are adjusted accordingly. We found no evidence for the prediction that females might benefit from modifying brood hierarchies through an increased deposition of androgens with laying order. Instead, females appear to exacerbate brood reduction by decreasing the costly production of yolk mass and antioxidants with laying order. Additionally, we found that this effect did not depend on colony size. Finally, in accordance with an expected increased intensity of environmental stress with increasing colony size, we found that yolk androgen concentration increased with colony size. This result suggests that females may enhance the competitive ability of offspring raised in larger colonies, possibly preparing the offspring for a competitive social environment.

Temperature-specific competition between invasive mosquitofish and an endangered cyprinodontid fish.

PubMed

Carmona-Catot, Gerard; Magellan, Kit; García-Berthou, Emili

2013-01-01

Condition-specific competition is widespread in nature. Species inhabiting heterogeneous environments tend to differ in competitive abilities depending on environmental stressors. Interactions between these factors can allow coexistence of competing species, which may be particularly important between invasive and native species. Here, we examine the effects of temperature on competitive interactions between invasive mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki, and an endemic Iberian toothcarp, Aphanius iberus. We compare the tendency to approach heterospecifics and food capture rates between these two species, and examine differences between sexes and species in aggressive interactions, at three different temperatures (19, 24 and 29°C) in three laboratory experiments. Mosquitofish exhibit much more aggression than toothcarp. We show that mosquitofish have the capacity to competitively displace toothcarp through interference competition and this outcome is more likely at higher temperatures. We also show a reversal in the competitive hierarchy through reduced food capture rate by mosquitofish at lower temperatures and suggest that these two types of competition may act synergistically to deprive toothcarp of food at higher temperatures. Males of both species carry out more overtly aggressive acts than females, which is probably related to the marked sexual dimorphism and associated mating systems of these two species. Mosquitofish may thus impact heavily on toothcarp, and competition from mosquitofish, especially in warmer summer months, may lead to changes in abundance of the native species and displacement to non-preferred habitats. Globally increasing temperatures mean that highly invasive, warm-water mosquitofish may be able to colonize environments from which they are currently excluded through reduced physiological tolerance to low temperatures. Research into the effects of temperature on interactions between native and invasive species is thus of fundamental importance.

Temperature-Specific Competition between Invasive Mosquitofish and an Endangered Cyprinodontid Fish

PubMed Central

Carmona-Catot, Gerard; Magellan, Kit; García-Berthou, Emili

2013-01-01

Condition-specific competition is widespread in nature. Species inhabiting heterogeneous environments tend to differ in competitive abilities depending on environmental stressors. Interactions between these factors can allow coexistence of competing species, which may be particularly important between invasive and native species. Here, we examine the effects of temperature on competitive interactions between invasive mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki, and an endemic Iberian toothcarp, Aphanius iberus. We compare the tendency to approach heterospecifics and food capture rates between these two species, and examine differences between sexes and species in aggressive interactions, at three different temperatures (19, 24 and 29°C) in three laboratory experiments. Mosquitofish exhibit much more aggression than toothcarp. We show that mosquitofish have the capacity to competitively displace toothcarp through interference competition and this outcome is more likely at higher temperatures. We also show a reversal in the competitive hierarchy through reduced food capture rate by mosquitofish at lower temperatures and suggest that these two types of competition may act synergistically to deprive toothcarp of food at higher temperatures. Males of both species carry out more overtly aggressive acts than females, which is probably related to the marked sexual dimorphism and associated mating systems of these two species. Mosquitofish may thus impact heavily on toothcarp, and competition from mosquitofish, especially in warmer summer months, may lead to changes in abundance of the native species and displacement to non-preferred habitats. Globally increasing temperatures mean that highly invasive, warm-water mosquitofish may be able to colonize environments from which they are currently excluded through reduced physiological tolerance to low temperatures. Research into the effects of temperature on interactions between native and invasive species is thus of fundamental importance. PMID:23382951

A Canopy Architectural Model to Study the Competitive Ability of Chickpea with Sowthistle

PubMed Central

Cici, S-Zahra-Hosseini; Adkins, Steve; Hanan, Jim

2008-01-01

Background and Aims Improving the competitive ability of crops is a sustainable method of weed management. This paper shows how a virtual plant model of competition between chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) can be used as a framework for discovering and/or developing more competitive chickpea cultivars. Methods The virtual plant models were developed using the L-systems formalism, parameterized according to measurements taken on plants at intervals during their development. A quasi-Monte Carlo light-environment model was used to model the effect of chickpea canopy on the development of sowthistle. The chickpea–light environment–sowthistle model (CLES model) captured the hypothesis that the architecture of chickpea plants modifies the light environment inside the canopy and determines sowthistle growth and development pattern. The resulting CLES model was parameterized for different chickpea cultivars (viz. ‘Macarena’, ‘Bumper’, ‘Jimbour’ and ‘99071-1001’) to compare their competitive ability with sowthistle. To validate the CLES model, an experiment was conducted using the same four chickpea cultivars as different treatments with a sowthistle growing under their canopy. Results and Conclusions The growth of sowthistle, both in silico and in glasshouse experiments, was reduced most by ‘99071-1001’, a cultivar with a short phyllochron. The second rank of competitive ability belonged to ‘Macarena’ and ‘Bumper’, while ‘Jimbour’ was the least competitive cultivar. The architecture of virtual chickpea plants modified the light inside the canopy, which influenced the growth and development of the sowthistle plants in response to different cultivars. This is the first time that a virtual plant model of a crop–weed interaction has been developed. This virtual plant model can serve as a platform for a broad range of applications in the study of chickpea–weed interactions and their environment. PMID:18375962

Decentralized supply chain network design: monopoly, duopoly and oligopoly competitions under uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seyedhosseini, Seyed Mohammad; Fahimi, Kaveh; Makui, Ahmad

2017-12-01

This paper presents the competitive supply chain network design problem in which n decentralized supply chains simultaneously enter the market with no existing rival chain, shape their networks and set wholesale and retail prices in competitive mode. The customer demand is elastic and price dependent, customer utility function is based on the Hoteling model and the chains produce identical or highly substitutable products. We construct a solution algorithm based on bi-level programming and possibility theory. In the proposed bi-level model, the inner part sets the prices based on simultaneous extra- and Stackleberg intra- chains competitions, and the outer part shapes the networks in cooperative competitions. Finally, we use a real-word study to discuss the effect of the different structures of the competitors on the equilibrium solution. Moreover, sensitivity analyses are conducted and managerial insights are offered.

Do School Markets Serve the Public Interest? More Lessons from England.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bauch, Patricia A.

2000-01-01

Philip Woods and Carl Bagley's "School Choice and Competition" (Routledge 1998) evaluates the viability of allowing parents to choose the school their children attend within a decentralized, market environment. Despite methodological shortcomings, the authors argue effectively for schools' resistance to "competitive" social…

Employment Retention after Vision Loss: Intensive Case Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crudden, Adele; Fireison, Cara K.

This study examined the lives of 10 individuals with blindness or severe visual impairment who maintained competitive employment despite their vision loss. The study was designed to provide information regarding the personal characteristics and current practices related to work environment alterations which enhance competitive employment…

Education Reform in Botswana: Reflections on Policy Contradictions and Paradoxes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tabulawa, Richard Tjombe

2009-01-01

Literature on globalisation claims that changed global patterns of production and industrial organisation have intensified international economic competition, prompting nations globally to restructure their education systems in an attempt to position themselves favourably in an increasingly competitive economic environment. This is an environment…

Beyond TQM: Competition and Cooperation Create the Agile Institution.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Godbey, Galen

1993-01-01

The market environment for higher education is being shaped by developments in technology, business practices, partnerships between education and industry, and adoption of Total Quality Management principles. Shrewd college administrators will combine competitiveness and cooperation to maintain or enhance their institutions' distinctiveness in the…

The Framework of Knowledge Creation for Online Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Hsiu­-Mei; Liaw, Shu­-Sheng

2004-01-01

In today's competitive global economy characterized by knowledge acquisition, the concept of knowledge management has become increasingly prevalent in academic and business practices. Knowledge creation is an important factor and remains a source of competitive advantage over knowledge management. Information technology facilitates knowledge…

Sustainable Competitive Advantage for Educational Institutions: A Suggested Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazzarol, Tim; Soutar, Geoffrey Norman

1999-01-01

Outlines a model of factors critical to establishing and maintaining sustainable competitive advantage for education-services enterprises in international markets. The model, which combines industrial economics, management theory, and services marketing, seeks to explain the strategic decision-making environment in which the education exporter…

Autonomous Soaring: The Montague Cross Country Challenge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edwards, Daniel J.

A novel method was developed for locating and allowing gliders to stay in thermals (convective updrafts). The method was applied to a 5 kg, glider, called ALOFT (autonomous locator of thermals), that was entered in the 2008 Montague Cross-Country Challenge held on 13-15 June 2008 in Montague, California. In this competition, RC (remote controlled) gliders in the 5 kg class competed on the basis of speed and distance. ALOFT was the first known autonomously soaring aircraft to enter a soaring competition and its entry provided a valuable comparison between the effectiveness of manual soaring and autonomous soaring. ALOFT placed third in the competition in overall points, outperforming manually-flown aircraft in its ability to center and utilize updrafts, especially at higher altitudes and in the presence of wind, to fly more optimal airspeeds, and to fly directly between turn points. The results confirm that autonomous soaring is a bona fide engineering sub-discipline, which is expected to be of interest to engineers who might find this has some utility in the aviation industry.

Life-history traits of alien and native senecio species in the Mediterranean region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sans, F. X.; Garcia-Serrano, H.; Afán, I.

2004-12-01

Two related shrubs, Senecio inaequidens and S. pterophorus, both introduced to western Mediterranean Europe from South Africa, were compared with a native Mediterranean shrub, S. malacitanus, to identify life-history traits that confer invasive ability. We examined ecological interactions that affect seedling emergence and establishment, flowering time, growth and reproduction and competitive ability in these three closely related species. Seeds were planted, the seedlings were then transplanted and individual performance was evaluated with respect to: (1) competition with plant neighbours and (2) resource addition. Senecio inaequidens had higher rates of seedling establishment and a shorter pre-reproductive period. Competition with neighbours had a considerable impact on S. malacitanus, delaying flowering time and reducing growth and reproduction. S. pterophorus showed inefficient seedling establishment compared to the other two species, but performed better in terms of growth and reproduction. The two alien species were markedly more competitive than the native one. However, differences in competitiveness among S. malacitanus and the two aliens varied depending on resource availability. Thus, Senecio inaequidens and S. pterophorus were more affected by competition in subplots with resource addition and by competition in those without addition, respectively. The latter showed a greater capacity to respond to additional resources in competitive environments and, in addition, its reproductive effort was unrelated to habitat conditions. The invasive potential of the alien species was higher than that of the native. This was a result of various biological characteristics and specific interactions between invader and environment, which made the invasiveness of alien species unpredictable.

Roles, skills, and competencies of middle managers in occupational therapy.

PubMed

Guo, Kristina L; Calderon, Ana

2007-01-01

This article describes the most essential roles, skills, and competencies needed by middle managers in occupational therapy organizations. Middle-level managers are responsible for a specific segment of the organization. They are uniquely positioned to foster changes in the department. Because of the challenges in the health care environment, it is important to discuss the roles that middle managers need to bring out the viability and growth of their departments and organization. These roles include planner, strategic planner, coordinator, leader, problem solver, and negotiator. To conduct these roles, skills and competencies that are closely linked to the effective performance of those roles are also described. Skills include human relations, marketing, and conceptual skills. Competencies include being able to manage attention, meaning, trust, and self, as well as being competent when conducting utilization reviews, program evaluations, documentation of services for quality and reimbursement purposes, and fiscal management. With these outlined roles, skills, and competencies, middle managers should be able to promote the mission of their organizations, support their employees, and navigate successfully in the competitive and ever-changing health care environment.

Intraspecific competition favours niche width expansion in Drosophila melanogaster.

PubMed

Bolnick, D I

2001-03-22

Ecologists have proposed that when interspecific competition is reduced, competition within a species becomes a potent evolutionary force leading to rapid diversification. This view reflects the observation that populations invading species-poor communities frequently evolve broader niches. Niche expansion can be associated with an increase in phenotypic variance (known as character release), with the evolution of polymorphisms, or with divergence into many species using distinct resources (adaptive radiation). The relationship between intraspecific competition and diversification is known from theory, and has been used as the foundation for some models of speciation. However, there has been little empirical proof that niches evolve in response to intraspecific competition. To test this hypothesis, I introduced cadmium-intolerant Drosophila melanogaster populations to environments containing both cadmium-free and cadmium-laced resources. Here I show that populations experiencing high competition adapted to cadmium more rapidly than low competition populations. This provides experimental confirmation that competition in a population can drive niche expansion onto new resources for which competition is less severe.

Porter's Five Competitive Forces Framework and Other Factors That Influence the Choice of Response Strategies Adopted by Public Universities in Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathooko, Francis M.; Ogutu, Martin

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish the extent to which Porter's five competitive forces (PFCF) framework, among other factors drive the choice of response strategies adopted by public universities in Kenya. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study design was descriptive and utilized a cross-sectional survey of all the public…

Modular Flooring System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thate, Robert

2012-01-01

The modular flooring system (MFS) was developed to provide a portable, modular, durable carpeting solution for NASA fs Robotics Alliance Project fs (RAP) outreach efforts. It was also designed to improve and replace a modular flooring system that was too heavy for safe use and transportation. The MFS was developed for use as the flooring for various robotics competitions that RAP utilizes to meet its mission goals. One of these competitions, the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), currently uses two massive rolls of broadloom carpet for the foundation of the arena in which the robots are contained during the competition. The area of the arena is approximately 30 by 72 ft (approximately 9 by 22 m). This carpet is very cumbersome and requires large-capacity vehicles, and handling equipment and personnel to transport and deploy. The broadloom carpet sustains severe abuse from the robots during a regular three-day competition, and as a result, the carpet is not used again for competition. Similarly, broadloom carpets used for trade shows at convention centers around the world are typically discarded after only one use. This innovation provides a green solution to this wasteful practice. Each of the flooring modules in the previous system weighed 44 lb (.20 kg). The improvements in the overall design of the system reduce the weight of each module by approximately 22 lb (.10 kg) (50 %), and utilize an improved "module-to-module" connection method that is superior to the previous system. The MFS comprises 4-by-4-ft (.1.2-by- 1.2-m) carpet module assemblies that utilize commercially available carpet tiles that are bonded to a lightweight substrate. The substrate surface opposite from the carpeted surface has a module-to-module connecting interface that allows for the modules to be connected, one to the other, as the modules are constructed. This connection is hidden underneath the modules, creating a smooth, co-planar flooring surface. The modules are stacked and strapped onto durable, commercially available drywall carts for storage and/or transportation. This method of storage and transportation makes it very convenient and safe when handling large quantities of modules.

Hybrid Symbiotic Organisms Search Optimization Algorithm for Scheduling of Tasks on Cloud Computing Environment.

PubMed

Abdullahi, Mohammed; Ngadi, Md Asri

2016-01-01

Cloud computing has attracted significant attention from research community because of rapid migration rate of Information Technology services to its domain. Advances in virtualization technology has made cloud computing very popular as a result of easier deployment of application services. Tasks are submitted to cloud datacenters to be processed on pay as you go fashion. Task scheduling is one the significant research challenges in cloud computing environment. The current formulation of task scheduling problems has been shown to be NP-complete, hence finding the exact solution especially for large problem sizes is intractable. The heterogeneous and dynamic feature of cloud resources makes optimum task scheduling non-trivial. Therefore, efficient task scheduling algorithms are required for optimum resource utilization. Symbiotic Organisms Search (SOS) has been shown to perform competitively with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The aim of this study is to optimize task scheduling in cloud computing environment based on a proposed Simulated Annealing (SA) based SOS (SASOS) in order to improve the convergence rate and quality of solution of SOS. The SOS algorithm has a strong global exploration capability and uses fewer parameters. The systematic reasoning ability of SA is employed to find better solutions on local solution regions, hence, adding exploration ability to SOS. Also, a fitness function is proposed which takes into account the utilization level of virtual machines (VMs) which reduced makespan and degree of imbalance among VMs. CloudSim toolkit was used to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method using both synthetic and standard workload. Results of simulation showed that hybrid SOS performs better than SOS in terms of convergence speed, response time, degree of imbalance, and makespan.

Hybrid Symbiotic Organisms Search Optimization Algorithm for Scheduling of Tasks on Cloud Computing Environment

PubMed Central

Abdullahi, Mohammed; Ngadi, Md Asri

2016-01-01

Cloud computing has attracted significant attention from research community because of rapid migration rate of Information Technology services to its domain. Advances in virtualization technology has made cloud computing very popular as a result of easier deployment of application services. Tasks are submitted to cloud datacenters to be processed on pay as you go fashion. Task scheduling is one the significant research challenges in cloud computing environment. The current formulation of task scheduling problems has been shown to be NP-complete, hence finding the exact solution especially for large problem sizes is intractable. The heterogeneous and dynamic feature of cloud resources makes optimum task scheduling non-trivial. Therefore, efficient task scheduling algorithms are required for optimum resource utilization. Symbiotic Organisms Search (SOS) has been shown to perform competitively with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The aim of this study is to optimize task scheduling in cloud computing environment based on a proposed Simulated Annealing (SA) based SOS (SASOS) in order to improve the convergence rate and quality of solution of SOS. The SOS algorithm has a strong global exploration capability and uses fewer parameters. The systematic reasoning ability of SA is employed to find better solutions on local solution regions, hence, adding exploration ability to SOS. Also, a fitness function is proposed which takes into account the utilization level of virtual machines (VMs) which reduced makespan and degree of imbalance among VMs. CloudSim toolkit was used to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method using both synthetic and standard workload. Results of simulation showed that hybrid SOS performs better than SOS in terms of convergence speed, response time, degree of imbalance, and makespan. PMID:27348127

Management and non-supervisory perceptions surrounding the implementation and significance of high-performance work practices in a nuclear power plant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashbridge, Gayle Ann

Change management has become an imperative for organizations as they move into the 21st century; up to 75 percent of change initiatives fail. Nuclear power plants face the same challenges as industrial firms with the added challenge of deregulation. Faced with this challenge, restructuring the electric utility has raised a number of complex issues. Under traditional cost-of-service regulation, electric utilities were able to pass on their costs to consumers who absorbed them. In the new competitive environment, customers will now choose their suppliers based on the most competitive price. The purpose of this study is to determine the degree of congruence between non-supervisory and supervisory personnel regarding the perceived implementation of high performance workplace practices at a nuclear power plant. This study used as its foundation the practices identified in the Road to High Performance Workplaces: A Guide to Better Jobs and Better Business Results by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of the American Workplace (1994). The population for this study consisted of organizational members at one nuclear power plant. Over 300 individuals completed surveys on high performance workplace practices. Two surveys were administered, one to non-supervisory personnel and one to first line supervisors and above. The determination of implementation levels was accomplished through descriptive statistical analysis. Results of the study revealed 32 areas of noncongruence between non-supervisory and supervisory personnel in regard to the perceived implementation level of the high performance workplace practices. Factor analysis further revealed that the order in which the respondents place emphasis on the variables varies between the two groups. This study provides recommendations that may improve the nuclear power plants alignment of activities. Recommendations are also provided for additional research on high-performance work practices.

New meters open new business opportunities for Blue Earth

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mashaw, R.

1996-07-01

Competition in the electric utility industry isn`t a concern only for the big boys. Small utilities, too, are giving increasing attention to measures that will improve their competitiveness through paring costs and improving service. Blue Earth, Minn., Light and Water Department, with approximately 2,200 electric meters, is a prime example of a small utility that thinks big. {open_quotes}We conducted a customer survey to determine what our customers want from us in terms of service,{close_quotes} said General Manager Jeffrey Jansen. {open_quotes}To meet those needs we`ve begun to sell a new fiberglass, high-efficiency electric water heater; offer rent or purchase of uninterruptiblemore » power systems to provide back-up for sensitive electronics if an outage occurs; and we`re even selling bottled water. We`re also going to offer budget billing as of August 1, because our customers wanted that option.{close_quotes} Recognizing that providing excellent customer service is only part of the competitiveness equation, Blue Earth has also looked for ways to cut costs. Its latest effort has been the implementation of a new hand-held meter reading system, which Jansen expects to provide substantial savings, and offer opportunities for adding new services in the future.« less

The Interplay Between Predation, Competition, and Nutrient Levels Influences the Survival of Escherichia coli in Aquatic Environments.

PubMed

Wanjugi, P; Fox, G A; Harwood, V J

2016-10-01

Nutrient levels, competition from autochthonous microorganisms, and protozoan predation may all influence survival of fecal microorganisms as they transition from the gastrointestinal tract to aquatic habitats. Although Escherichia coli is an important indicator of waterborne pathogens, the effects of environmental stressors on its survival in aquatic environments remain poorly understood. We manipulated organic nutrient, predation, and competition levels in outdoor microcosms containing natural river water, sediments, and microbial populations to determine their relative contribution to E. coli survival. The activities of predator (protozoa) and competitor (indigenous bacteria) populations were inhibited by adding cycloheximide or kanamycin. We developed a statistical model of E. coli density over time that fits with the data under all experimental conditions. Predation and competition had significant negative effects on E. coli survival, while higher nutrient levels increased survival. Among the main effects, predation accounted for the greatest variation (40 %) compared with nutrients (25 %) or competition (15 %). The highest nutrient level mitigated the effect of predation on E. coli survival. Thus, elevated organic nutrients may disproportionately enhance the survival of E. coli, and potentially that of other enteric bacteria, in aquatic habitats.

Alterations to multisensory and unisensory integration by stimulus competition

PubMed Central

Rowland, Benjamin A.; Stanford, Terrence R.; Stein, Barry E.

2011-01-01

In environments containing sensory events at competing locations, selecting a target for orienting requires prioritization of stimulus values. Although the superior colliculus (SC) is causally linked to the stimulus selection process, the manner in which SC multisensory integration operates in a competitive stimulus environment is unknown. Here we examined how the activity of visual-auditory SC neurons is affected by placement of a competing target in the opposite hemifield, a stimulus configuration that would, in principle, promote interhemispheric competition for access to downstream motor circuitry. Competitive interactions between the targets were evident in how they altered unisensory and multisensory responses of individual neurons. Responses elicited by a cross-modal stimulus (multisensory responses) proved to be substantially more resistant to competitor-induced depression than were unisensory responses (evoked by the component modality-specific stimuli). Similarly, when a cross-modal stimulus served as the competitor, it exerted considerably more depression than did its individual component stimuli, in some cases producing more depression than predicted by their linear sum. These findings suggest that multisensory integration can help resolve competition among multiple targets by enhancing orientation to the location of cross-modal events while simultaneously suppressing orientation to events at alternate locations. PMID:21957224

Alterations to multisensory and unisensory integration by stimulus competition.

PubMed

Pluta, Scott R; Rowland, Benjamin A; Stanford, Terrence R; Stein, Barry E

2011-12-01

In environments containing sensory events at competing locations, selecting a target for orienting requires prioritization of stimulus values. Although the superior colliculus (SC) is causally linked to the stimulus selection process, the manner in which SC multisensory integration operates in a competitive stimulus environment is unknown. Here we examined how the activity of visual-auditory SC neurons is affected by placement of a competing target in the opposite hemifield, a stimulus configuration that would, in principle, promote interhemispheric competition for access to downstream motor circuitry. Competitive interactions between the targets were evident in how they altered unisensory and multisensory responses of individual neurons. Responses elicited by a cross-modal stimulus (multisensory responses) proved to be substantially more resistant to competitor-induced depression than were unisensory responses (evoked by the component modality-specific stimuli). Similarly, when a cross-modal stimulus served as the competitor, it exerted considerably more depression than did its individual component stimuli, in some cases producing more depression than predicted by their linear sum. These findings suggest that multisensory integration can help resolve competition among multiple targets by enhancing orientation to the location of cross-modal events while simultaneously suppressing orientation to events at alternate locations.

Identifying competitive strategies to improve the performance of hospitals in a competitive environment.

PubMed

Chang, Chuan-Hui; Chiao, Yu-Ching; Tsai, Yafang

2017-11-21

This study is based on competitive dynamics theory, and discusses competitive actions (including their implementation requirements, strategic orientation, and action complexity) that influence hospitals' performance, while also meeting the requirements of Taiwan's "global budget" insurance payment policy. In order to investigate the possible actions of hospitals, the study was conducted in two stages. The first stage investigated the actions of hospitals from March 1 to May 31, 2009. Semi-structured questionnaires were used, which included in-depth interviews with senior supervisors of 10 medium- and large-scale hospitals in central Taiwan. This stage collected data related to the types of actions adopted by the hospitals in previous years. The second stage was based on the data collected from the first stage and on developed questionnaires, which were distributed from June 29 to November 1, 2009. The questionnaires were given to 20 superintendents, deputy superintendents, and supervisors responsible for the management of a hospital, and focused on medical centers and regional hospitals in central Taiwan in order to determine the types and number of competitive actions. First, the strategic orientation of an action has a significantly positive influence on subjective performance. Second, action complexity has a significantly positive influence on the subjective and the objective performance of a hospital. Third, the implementation requirements of actions do not have a significantly positive impact on the subjective or the objective performance of a hospital. Managers facing a competitive healthcare environment should adopt competitive strategies to improve the performance of the hospital.

Microbial competition in porous environments can select against rapid biofilm growth

PubMed Central

Coyte, Katharine Z.; Tabuteau, Hervé; Gaffney, Eamonn A.; Durham, William M.

2017-01-01

Microbes often live in dense communities called biofilms, where competition between strains and species is fundamental to both evolution and community function. Although biofilms are commonly found in soil-like porous environments, the study of microbial interactions has largely focused on biofilms growing on flat, planar surfaces. Here, we use microfluidic experiments, mechanistic models, and game theory to study how porous media hydrodynamics can mediate competition between bacterial genotypes. Our experiments reveal a fundamental challenge faced by microbial strains that live in porous environments: cells that rapidly form biofilms tend to block their access to fluid flow and redirect resources to competitors. To understand how these dynamics influence the evolution of bacterial growth rates, we couple a model of flow–biofilm interaction with a game theory analysis. This investigation revealed that hydrodynamic interactions between competing genotypes give rise to an evolutionarily stable growth rate that stands in stark contrast with that observed in typical laboratory experiments: cells within a biofilm can outcompete other genotypes by growing more slowly. Our work reveals that hydrodynamics can profoundly affect how bacteria compete and evolve in porous environments, the habitat where most bacteria live. PMID:28007984

Effects of Exergaming and Message Framing in School Environments on Physical Activity Attitudes and Intentions of Children and Adolescents.

PubMed

Lwin, May O; Ho, Shirley S; Younbo, Jung; Leng, Theng Yin; Wardoyo, Reidinar J; Jung, Kim Hyo

2016-09-01

Although interventions targeting the health of students in schools are becoming common, few studies have examined how health messages operate at the group level in school environments. This study examines the effects of message-based health interventions (extrinsic vs. intrinsic goal framing) in group environments (exergame competitive vs. exergame noncompetitive) on eliciting attitudes and intentions toward physical activity among children and adolescents. We conducted a 7-week school-based intervention program involving 336 children and 259 adolescents in Singapore in which pre- and post-intervention responses were recorded. Our findings revealed the difference in responses between child and adolescent groups. Children who participated in noncompetitive exergames with extrinsically framed health messages and those who participated in competitive exergames with intrinsically framed health messages demonstrated more favorable attitudes toward physical activity. However, the same effects were absent in our adolescent group. These findings suggest that the integration of exergames into competitive and noncompetitive environments can serve as a gateway to traditional physical activity in schools when strategically combined with intrinsically and extrinsically framed messages. Practical and theoretical implications for schools and health educators are discussed.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-23

College team members watch a live display of their mining robots during test runs in the mining arena at NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-24

Team members from the New York University Tandon School of Engineering transport their robot to the mining arena during NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-23

College team members prepare to enter the robotic mining arena for a test run during NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

Team members cheer during their robot miner's turn in the mining arena on the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-24

The robotic miner from Mississippi State University digs in the mining arena during NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

A volunteer talks with a mining judge near the mining arena on the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-23

Team members from Purdue University prepare their uniquely-designed robot miner in the RoboPit at NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

On the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, two robot miners dig in the dirt in the mining arena at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Leadership skills for the California electric utility industry: A qualitative study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hubbell, Michael

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the skills and knowledge necessary for leaders in the California electric utility industry in 2020. With rapid industry changes, skills to effectively lead and stay competitive are undetermined. Leaders must manage an increasingly hostile social and political environment, incorporate new technology, and deal with an aging workforce and infrastructure. Methodology. This study utilized a qualitative case study design to determine the factors that influence the skills leaders will require in 2020. It incorporated the perspectives of current electric utility leaders while looking with a future lens. Findings. Interviews were conducted with transmission and distribution (T&D) directors at 3 investor-owned public electric utilities headquartered in California. The questions followed an open-ended format to gather responses as perceived by electric utility leaders for each research question category: overall skills, aging workforce, regulation, technology, and leading younger generations. The research resulted in 18 major themes: 5 for overall skills, 3 for aging workforce, 4 for regulation, 3 for technology, and 3 for leading younger generations. Conclusions. The study identified leadership skills including the ability to embrace, leverage, and stay current with technology; understand and provide a clear vision for the future; increase creativity; manage the next set of workers; motivate during a time of great change; prepare for knowledge transfer and change in workforce culture; manage regulatory expectations; expand potential utility opportunities; leverage "big data"; allow worker collaboration; and understand what drives younger generations. Recommendations. California-based electric utility leaders can remain effective by implementing key strategies identified herein. Further research could examine perspectives of additional utility leaders who lead in organizational units outside of T&D, expand the research to include additional states, and/or demonstrate how to acquire the identified skills. It is also recommended that a replication of this study be undertaken to include a perspective and analysis of union or "field" workers.

Marketing strategies, or, it wouldn't be competition without competitors.

PubMed

Beckham, D

1983-01-01

Predicting that in an environment of limited resources, the hospital's competitive strategy will assume greater importance, the author reviews the relationship of positioning to market success. He also discussed how such strategies as differentiation, overall cost leadership, and market focus can be applied to hospitals.

Crowd computing: using competitive dynamics to develop and refine highly predictive models.

PubMed

Bentzien, Jörg; Muegge, Ingo; Hamner, Ben; Thompson, David C

2013-05-01

A recent application of a crowd computing platform to develop highly predictive in silico models for use in the drug discovery process is described. The platform, Kaggle™, exploits a competitive dynamic that results in model optimization as the competition unfolds. Here, this dynamic is described in detail and compared with more-conventional modeling strategies. The complete and full structure of the underlying dataset is disclosed and some thoughts as to the broader utility of such 'gamification' approaches to the field of modeling are offered. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effects of display-control I/O, compatibility, and integrality on dual-task performance and subjective workload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tsang, Pamela S.; Hart, Sandra G.; Vidulich, Michael A.

1987-01-01

The utility of speech technology was evaluated in terms of three dual task principles: resource competition between the time shared tasks, stimulus central processing response compatibility, and task integrality. Empirical support for these principles was reviewed. Two studies investigating the interactive effects of the three principles were described. Objective performance and subjective workload ratings for both single and dual tasks were examined. It was found that the single task measures were not necessarily good predictors for the dual task measures. It was shown that all three principles played an important role in determining an optimal task configuration. This was reflected in both the performance measures and the subjective measures. Therefore, consideration of all three principles is required to insure proper use of speech technology in a complex environment.

Minimization of Blast furnace Fuel Rate by Optimizing Burden and Gas Distribution

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dr. Chenn Zhou

2012-08-15

The goal of the research is to improve the competitive edge of steel mills by using the advanced CFD technology to optimize the gas and burden distributions inside a blast furnace for achieving the best gas utilization. A state-of-the-art 3-D CFD model has been developed for simulating the gas distribution inside a blast furnace at given burden conditions, burden distribution and blast parameters. The comprehensive 3-D CFD model has been validated by plant measurement data from an actual blast furnace. Validation of the sub-models is also achieved. The user friendly software package named Blast Furnace Shaft Simulator (BFSS) has beenmore » developed to simulate the blast furnace shaft process. The research has significant benefits to the steel industry with high productivity, low energy consumption, and improved environment.« less

Robotic Mining Competition - Media Day

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-25

NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, at right, talks with Ken Kremer, Universe Today, during media day at the agency's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Cabana shared his thoughts about the competition and the progress made to make Kennedy a multi-user spaceport. Teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. used their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participated in other competition requirements, May 22-26. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Proteome changes in the initial bacterial colonist during ecological succession in an acid mine drainage biofilm community

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mueller, Ryan; Dill, Brian; Pan, Chongle

2011-01-01

Proteomes of acid mine drainage biofilms at different stages of ecological succession were examined to understand microbial responses to changing community membership. We evaluated the degree of reproducibility of the community proteomes between samples of the same growth stage and found stable and predictable protein abundance patterns across time and sampling space, allowing for a set of 50 classifier proteins to be identified for use in predicting growth stages of undefined communities. Additionally, physiological changes in the dominant species, Leptospirillum Group II, were analysed as biofilms mature. During early growth stages, this population responds to abiotic stresses related to growthmore » on the acid mine drainage solution. Enzymes involved in protein synthesis, cell division and utilization of 1- and 2-carbon compounds were more abundant in early growth stages, suggesting rapid growth and a reorganization of metabolism during biofilm initiation. As biofilms thicken and diversify, external stresses arise from competition for dwindling resources, which may inhibit cell division of Leptospirillum Group II through the SOS response. This population also represses translation and synthesizes more complex carbohydrates and amino acids in mature biofilms. These findings provide unprecedented insight into the physiological changes that may result from competitive interactions within communities in natural environments.« less

Development of analytical method for ultrasensitive detection of salbutamol utilizing DNA labeled-immunoprobe.

PubMed

Lei, Yajing; Li, Xiaoyi; Akash, Muhammad Sajid Hamid; Zhou, Lifang; Tang, Xiaojing; Shi, Weixing; Liu, Zhiming; Chen, Shuqing

2015-03-25

Salbutamol (SAL) is known as quick-acting β-2 receptor agonist and its use in humans for pulmonary diseases and/or in animal feed is limited because of associated potential hazardous effects on health. Several techniques are available for the detection of SAL, but are expensive and time consuming. Here for the first time, a novel pre-assembled DNA immunoprobe-based immuno-PCR assay was developed to investigate the levels of SAL in human urine samples and compared the proposed immuno-PCR assay for the detection of SAL with that of direct competitive ELISA. Under the optimized conditions, the assay showed a linear range over seven orders of magnitude, whereas the limit of detection of SAL in buffer was found to be 21 fg/mL. Current immuno-PCR assay exhibited a 300-fold better detection limit for SAL as compared to one achieved with direct competitive ELISA using the same antibody. In conclusion, it has been found that the developed method is highly sensitive and simple method that can significantly enhance the detection sensitivity for small molecules. Moreover it can be modified and used for detecting other small molecules and/or chemicals that exist in the environment and are responsible for the environmental pollution. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The utility and feasibility of business training for neurosurgeons.

PubMed

Giller, Cole A

2008-04-01

Socioeconomic changes have imposed many administrative demands on neurosurgeons, including managing facilities such as the intensive care unit without absolute authority and maintaining referrals, marketing in an increasingly competitive environment, effecting change within stubborn hospital systems, negotiating fair contracts with insurance companies, using financial statements to make financial decisions, managing small groups under new rules of human resources, navigating a Byzantine system of reimbursement, and assessing entrepreneurial opportunities. A set of new tools and skills has been developed by the business community in response to similar problems that may be of use to neurosurgeons. These advances are reviewed in a neurosurgical context, and routes to business training for the neurosurgeon are discussed. Recent advances in business are discussed with a focus on their relevance to neurosurgical practice. Current neurosurgical interest in business training and training opportunities for neurosurgeons are presented. Interest in business training within the neurosurgery community is keen, and advances in the field of business may be helpful in addressing the new tasks faced by neurosurgeons. New tools from advances in business are available which have been invaluable to corporations and may be helpful to neurosurgeons wanting to improve efficiency and maintain competitive advantage. Business training is available to neurosurgeons through a variety of routes.

The impact of South Korea's new drug-pricing policy on market competition among off-patent drugs.

PubMed

Kwon, Hye-Young; Kim, Hyungmin; Godman, Brian; Reich, Michael R

2015-01-01

A new pricing policy was introduced in Korea in April 2012 with the aim of strengthening competition among off-patent drugs by eliminating price gaps between originators and generics. Examine the effect of newly implemented pricing policy. Retrospectively examining the effects through extracting from the National Health Insurance claims data a 30-month panel dataset (January 2011-June 2013) containing consumption data in four major therapeutic classes (antihypertensives, lipid-lowering drugs, antiulcerants and antidepressants). Proxies for market competition were examined before and after the policy. The new pricing policy did not enhance competition among off-patent drugs. In fact, price dispersion significantly decreased as opposed to the expected change. Originator-to-generic utilization increased 6.12 times (p = 0.000) after the new policy. The new pricing policy made no impact on competition among off-patent drugs. Competition in the off-patent market cannot be enhanced unless both supply and demand side measures are coordinated.

Residential outdoor water use in Tucson, Arizona: Geospatial, demographic and temporal perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Himmel, Alexander I.

Outdoor water use by single-family residences in the desert city of Tucson, Arizona is investigated as a multi-scaled coupled human-environment system, using remotely sensed images, GIS data, household water use records and survey responses. Like many desert cities, Tucson's municipal water system faces stresses at multiple spatial and temporal scales: rising demand, limited supplies, competition for distant resources and the likelihood of shortages due to regional climate change. Though the need for demand management is recognized, conflict between the long-term regional scale of the ecosystem that sustains Tucson's water supply and the short-term, local scale of the municipal utility results in a "lack of fit", shown here as the inability to reduce consumption to sustainable levels. While direct regulation of outdoor water use has not been successful, geographic research suggests that modification of the built environment, the focus of the three studies comprising this dissertation, holds promise as a demand management strategy. The first study is a spatial analysis of survey responses on outdoor water use practices during a drought. Next, the potential for substituting common amenities (irrigated landscapes and swimming pools) for private ones is investigated. Residential use was found to be sensitive to park proximity, greenness (proxied by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), size and presence of a park pool. Most small parks were net water savers; large parks offered the opportunity to substitute reclaimed water for potable supplies. The last study correlates long-term Landsat-based vegetation and water use trends and integrates these with a spatial analysis of kinetic temperatures. Findings indicate that despite reduced water use, Tucson became greener over the 1995 -- 2008 period. This effect is attributed to a pulse of vegetation establishment in response to a shift in the El Nino -- Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) around 1976 and to irrigation prior to the study period. I conclude that although the coupled human-environment system of Tucson's municipal water supply and use practices is complex, there are scale-dependent competitive advantages to be gained through thoughtful modification of the built environment.

The Visible Hand: Markets, Politics, and Regulation in Post-Katrina New Orleans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jabbar, Huriya

2016-01-01

In this article Huriya Jabbar examines how the regulatory environment in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans has influenced choice, incentives, and competition among schools. While previous research has highlighted the mechanisms of competition and individual choice--the "invisible hand"--and the creation of markets in education, Jabbar…

Evaluation of Corporate Training Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandenburg, Dale C.; Smith, Martin E.

The growing interest in human resources development (HRD) is a response to the increasingly competitive business environment which, in turn, has been shaped by such forces as the emergence of global competition, the quickening pace of technological innovation and the reduction of federal regulations in some industries. This monograph seeks to…

Does Reputation Matter? Case Study of Undergraduate Choice at a Premier University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munisamy, Susila; Mohd Jaafar, Noor Ismawati; Nagaraj, Shyamala

2014-01-01

The changing facets of the Malaysian higher education created market-based competition among higher education institutions. With increasing competition in the higher education environment, a clearer understanding of why and how students choose universities is more important to help universities develop their marketing strategies. This paper…

Adoption of Innovation from the Business Sector by Post-Primary Education Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hazzan, Orit; Zelig, Dafna

2016-01-01

Business organizations adopt innovation with the objective of meeting competition and improving their business performance; education organizations, likewise, operate in a competitive environment, are evaluated by stakeholders, and adopt innovation. The research presented here links these two sectors; its objective was to characterize the process…

Food Fight: The Battle over Redefining Competitive Foods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fleischhacker, Sheila

2007-01-01

Background: Environmental and policy influences are potentially the most powerful and yet the least understood strategies for reversing the current childhood obesity epidemic. Methods: This essay focuses on the school lunch environment and examines the key legal and policy factors that affect competitive foods or foods of minimal nutritional value…

Politics and School Desegregation before and after "Parents Involved"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Frank; Hunter, Richard C.

2009-01-01

The authors attempt to tell the story of "Brown" and "Parents Involved" on educational inequality and connect these topics to economic competition globally. "Brown" came about in the 1950s in a much different environment: America was less diverse racially and ethnically, and economic competition on a global scale was…

Collegial Environment Vitality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rinehart, Richard L., Ed.

1982-01-01

The Commission on Instruction of the New York State Association of Two-Year Colleges sponsored a competition which solicited papers on exemplary practices and procedures that improve the spirit of vitality and morale in two-year colleges. This special journal issue includes the brief papers accepted for the competition. After Richard L. Rinehart's…

Critical Success Factors for Knowledge Transfer Collaborations between University and Industry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schofield, Tatiana

2013-01-01

In a fast moving business environment university-industry collaborations play a critical role in contributing to national economies and furthering a competitive advantage. Knowledge transfer from university to industry is supported by national governments as part of their innovation, national growth and competitiveness agenda. A…

43 CFR 3420.3-4 - Regional tract ranking, selection, environmental analysis and scheduling.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Regional tract ranking, selection...) COMPETITIVE LEASING Competitive Leasing § 3420.3-4 Regional tract ranking, selection, environmental analysis... natural environment; and socioeconomic impacts. The subfactors the regional coal team will consider under...

Competitive effects of bluebunch wheatgrass, crested wheatgrass, and cheatgrass on antelope bitterbrush seedling emergence and survival

Treesearch

Derek B. Hall; Val Jo Anderson; Stephen B. Monsen

1999-01-01

The competitive environment into which plant seedlings emerge often determines the survival and performance of these individuals. This study was designed to determine the effects of bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum), and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) on soil...

COMP-1 promotes competitive advantage of nematode sperm.

PubMed

Hansen, Jody M; Chavez, Daniela R; Stanfield, Gillian M

2015-03-19

Competition among sperm to fertilize oocytes is a ubiquitous feature of sexual reproduction as well as a profoundly important aspect of sexual selection. However, little is known about the cellular mechanisms sperm use to gain competitive advantage or how these mechanisms are regulated genetically. In this study, we utilize a forward genetic screen in Caenorhabditis elegans to identify a gene, comp-1, whose function is specifically required in competitive contexts. We show that comp-1 functions in sperm to modulate their migration through and localization within the reproductive tract, thereby promoting their access to oocytes. Contrary to previously described models, comp-1 mutant sperm show no defects in size or velocity, thereby defining a novel pathway for preferential usage. Our results indicate not only that sperm functional traits can influence the outcome of sperm competition, but also that these traits can be modulated in a context-dependent manner depending on the presence of competing sperm.

A model of the evolution of larval feeding rate in Drosophila driven by conflicting energy demands.

PubMed

Mueller, Laurence D; Barter, Thomas T

2015-02-01

Energy allocation is believed to drive trade-offs in life history evolution. We develop a physiological and genetic model of energy allocation that drives evolution of feeding rate in a well-studied model system. In a variety of stressful environments Drosophila larvae adapt by altering their rate of feeding. Drosophila larvae adapted to high levels of ammonia, urea, and the presence of parasitoids evolve lower feeding rates. Larvae adapted to crowded conditions evolve higher feeding rates. Feeding rates should affect gross food intake, metabolic rates, and efficiency of food utilization. We develop a model of larval net energy intake as a function of feeding rates. We show that when there are toxic compounds in the larval food that require energy for detoxification, larvae can maximize their energy intake by slowing their feeding rates. While the reduction in feeding rates may increase development time and decrease competitive ability, we show that genotypes with lower feeding rates can be favored by natural selection if they have a sufficiently elevated viability in the toxic environment. This work shows how a simple phenotype, larval feeding rates, may be of central importance in adaptation to a wide variety of stressful environments via its role in energy allocation.

Work Environment-Related Factors in Obtaining and Maintaining Work in a Competitive Employment Setting for Employees with Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Ellenkamp, Joke J H; Brouwers, Evelien P M; Embregts, Petri J C M; Joosen, Margot C W; van Weeghel, Jaap

2016-03-01

People with an intellectual disability value work as a significant part of their lives, and many of them want to participate in regular paid employment.Current estimates show that the number of people with ID who have some form of paid employment are very low, ranging from 9 to 40% across different countries,despite legislations. This review examines papers published in the past 20 years in an attempt to answer the following research question: ‘What work environment-related factors contribute to obtaining or maintaining work in competitive employment for people with an intellectual disability?’ The databases of PubMed, PsycINFO,CINAHL, Embase and Web of Science were searched for relevant papers published between 1993 and 2013. All papers were independently screened by two researchers.Methodological quality of the studies was evaluated, and data on work environment-related factors stimulating employment for people with intellectual disabilities were extracted and grouped into categories. A total of 1932 articles were retrieved. After extensive screening for relevance and quality, 26 articles were included in this review. Four themes/categories with work environment related factors that could influence work participation were distinguished. Five studies were conducted on employers’ decisions and opinions. Eight focused on job content and performance, and eight on workplace interaction and culture. Five studies evaluated support by job coaches. Despite ongoing legislation to promote participation of people with intellectual disabilities in the paid workforce, research in this area is still extremely scarce. In the past 20 years, very few studies have focused on work environment-related factors that can enhance competitive work for people with intellectual disabilities.This review shows that relevant work environment-related factors for obtaining and maintaining work in competitive employment include supporting the employers by paying specific attention to: employer’s decisions, job content, integration and work culture and job coaches.

Toward an Extension of Decision Analysis to Competitive Situations.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-12-01

order to deal with competition may ease the use of non- von Neumann-Morgenstern utility. This leads to our secondary goal of questioning expected...While von WInterfeldt [1980] attempted a 5 (more detailed analysis using three separate decision trees, one for each side In the dispute, he felt that...rationality generally used In game theory derives from the same roots as the calculated rationality of Decision Analysis, von Neumann and

Examining the influences of tree-to-tree competition and climate on size-growth relationships in hydric, multi-aged Fraxinus nigra stands

Treesearch

Christopher E. Looney; Anthony W. D' Amato; Shawn Fraver; Brian J. Palik; Michael R. Reinikainen

2016-01-01

Most research on tree-tree competition and size-growth relationship (SGR – a stand-level metric that infers the relative efficiency with which different sized trees utilize available resources) has focused on upland systems. It is unclear if inferences from these studies extend to wetland forests. Moreover, no study to date has thoroughly investigated the relationship...

High-school Student Teams in a National NASA Microgravity Science Competition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeLombard, Richard; Hodanbosi, Carol; Stocker, Dennis

2003-01-01

The Dropping In a Microgravity Environment or DIME competition for high-school-aged student teams has completed the first year for nationwide eligibility after two regional pilot years. With the expanded geographic participation and increased complexity of experiments, new lessons were learned by the DIME staff. A team participating in DIME will research the field of microgravity, develop a hypothesis, and prepare a proposal for an experiment to be conducted in a NASA microgravity drop tower. A team of NASA scientists and engineers will select the top proposals and then the selected teams will design and build their experiment apparatus. When completed, team representatives will visit NASA Glenn in Cleveland, Ohio to operate their experiment in the 2.2 Second Drop Tower and participate in workshops and center tours. NASA participates in a wide variety of educational activities including competitive events. There are competitive events sponsored by NASA (e.g. NASA Student Involvement Program) and student teams mentored by NASA centers (e.g. For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition). This participation by NASA in these public forums serves to bring the excitement of aerospace science to students and educators.Researchers from academic institutions, NASA, and industry utilize the 2.2 Second Drop Tower at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio for microgravity research. The researcher may be able to complete the suite of experiments in the drop tower but many experiments are precursor experiments for spaceflight experiments. The short turnaround time for an experiment's operations (45 minutes) and ready access to experiment carriers makes the facility amenable for use in a student program. The pilot year for DIME was conducted during the 2000-2001 school year with invitations sent out to Ohio- based schools and organizations. A second pilot year was conducted during the 2001-2002 school year for teams in the six-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The third year for DIME was conducted during the 2002-2003 school year for teams from the fifty United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. An annual national DIME program is planned for the foreseeable future. Presented in this paper will be a description of DIME, an overview of the planning and execution of such a program, results from the first three years, and lessons learned from the first national competition.

The form of sexual selection arising from male-male competition depends on the presence of females in the social environment.

PubMed

Procter, D S; Moore, A J; Miller, C W

2012-05-01

Sexual selection arises from social interactions, and if social environments vary so too should sexual selection. For example, male-male competition often occurs either in the presence or in the absence of females, and such changes in the social environment could affect the form and strength of sexual selection. Here we examine how the presence of a female influences selection arising from male-male competition in a leaf-footed cactus bug, Narnia femorata, which has a resource defence mating system. Males compete for territories on cacti because females lay eggs on the cactus plants. Females are not always present when this competition first occurs; however, the presence or absence of the female matters. We found that both the form and strength of selection on male traits, those traits that influenced success in intrasexual competition, depended on the social context. When a female was not present, male size and the area of the sexually dimorphic hind legs was only marginally important to winning a contest. However, males with larger overall size and leg area were more likely to win in the presence of a female. There was also positive quadratic selection on these traits when a female was present with both the largest and the smallest males winning. The implication is unexpected alternative strategies when females are present. Our results support the notion that sexual selection should be studied under all relevant social contexts. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2012 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

The Impact of Competition on Raising Mathematics Competency at Camelot Elementary School in Chesapeake, Virginia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayden, L. B.; Johnson, D.

2012-12-01

In 1995, the Virginia Department of Education approved a federal mandate for No Child Left Behind 2001 Education Act implementing the Standards of Learning (SOL) in four content areas: Mathematics, Science, English, and History and Social Sciences. These new guidelines set forth learning and achievement expectations for content areas for grades K-12 in Virginia's Public Schools. Given the SOL mandates, Virginia's elementary teachers and school leaders utilized research for specific teaching methods intended to encourage score improvements on end of year mathematics tests. In 2001, the concept of the Math Sprint Competition was introduced to Camelot Elementary School in Chesapeake Virginia, by researchers at Elizabeth City State University of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Camelot Elementary, a K-5 school, is a Title I school nestled in a lower middle class neighborhood and houses a high number of minority students. On average, these students achieve lower test score gains than students in higher socioeconomic status district schools. Defined as a test-review based in relay format that utilizes released SOL test items, Math Sprint promotes mathematical skills outlined in Virginia SOL's and encourages competition among students that motivated them to quickly pick up on new material and retain the old material in order to out-do the others. Research identified was based on specific relationships between student competition and statewide testing results in mathematics for grades three, four, and five at Camelot Elementary. Data was compiled from results of the Math Sprint Competition and research focused on methods for motivating students encouraged by the use of a math sprint competition. Individual Pearson Product Moment Correlations were conducted to determine which variables possess strong and statistically significant relationships. Significantly, positive results came from 2005 to 2010 math sprints data from which students participated.

Application of GIS in exploring spatial dimensions of Efficiency in Competitiveness of Regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahmat, Shahid; Sen, Joy

2017-04-01

Infrastructure is an important component in building competitiveness of a region. Present global scenario of economic slowdown that is led by slump in demand of goods and services and decreasing capacity of government institutions in investing public infrastructure. Strategy of augmenting competitiveness of a region can be built around improving efficient distribution of public infrastructure in the region. This efficiency in the distribution of infrastructure will reduce the burden of government institution and improve the relative output of the region in relative lesser investment. A rigorous literature study followed by an expert opinion survey (RIDIT scores) reveals that Railway, Road, ICTs and Electricity infrastructure is very crucial for better competitiveness of a region. Discussion with Experts in ICTs, Railways and Electricity sectors were conducted to find the issues, hurdles and possible solution for the development of these sectors. In an underdeveloped country like India, there is a large constrain of financial resources, for investment in infrastructure sector. Judicious planning for allocation of resources for infrastructure provisions becomes very important for efficient and sustainable development. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is the mathematical programming optimization tool that measure technical efficiency of the multiple-input and/or multiple-output case by constructing a relative technical efficiency score. This paper tries to utilize DEA to identify the efficiency at which present level of selected components of Infrastructure (Railway, Road, ICTs and Electricity) is utilized in order to build competitiveness of the region. This paper tries to identify a spatial pattern of efficiency of Infrastructure with the help of spatial auto-correlation and Hot-spot analysis in Arc GIS. This analysis leads to policy implications for efficient allocation of financial resources for the provision of infrastructure in the region and building a prerequisite to boost an efficient Regional Competitiveness.

Understanding mass school shootings: links between personhood and power in the competitive school environment.

PubMed

Thompson, Stephen; Kyle, Ken

2005-09-01

This paper explores perspectives about certain individual and social characteristics that may contribute to school shootings by students. It begins with perspectives on individual/environment fit, arguing first that persons marginalized by their caregivers during their upbringing, and by their peers, are lacking in the social interactions that help develop ethical behavior. Our argument contends that lacking such interactions may result in the failure to develop a sound moral philosophy. Further, we argue that when such persons enter the highly competitive environment found in some suburban and rural schools, some will be continually and consistently marginalized, finding their means of self-expression and sense of significance subdued. Their need for self-expression and a sense of significance as persons will surface, but without the benefit of a moral philosophy to guide that expression, this may result in deviant means of expression, such as violence--even extraordinary violence. We do not attempt to identify a list of specific traits of school shooters, which might lead to the development of a profile of school shooters. Rather, we are concerned with the characteristics of the environment in which shootings might occur, and how students not fully prepared for that environment might react. Thus, this paper is an overview of how seeds of the neglect of the basic needs of personhood, when sown early in life, and nurtured by peers, might come to fruition in the fertile field of the competitive school environment.

Magnitude and Mechanism of Siderophore-Mediated Competition at Low Iron Solubility in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pyochelin System.

PubMed

Schiessl, Konstanze T; Janssen, Elisabeth M-L; Kraemer, Stephan M; McNeill, Kristopher; Ackermann, Martin

2017-01-01

A central question in microbial ecology is whether microbial interactions are predominantly cooperative or competitive. The secretion of siderophores, microbial iron chelators, is a model system for cooperative interactions. However, siderophores have also been shown to mediate competition by sequestering available iron and making it unavailable to competitors. The details of how siderophores mediate competition are not well understood, especially considering the complex distribution of iron phases in the environment. One pertinent question is whether sequestering iron through siderophores can indeed be effective in natural conditions; many natural environments are characterized by large pools of precipitated iron, and it is conceivable that any soluble iron that is sequestered by siderophores is replenished by the dissolution of these precipitated iron sources. Our goal here was to address this issue, and investigate the magnitude and mechanism of siderophore-mediated competition in the presence of precipitated iron. We combined experimental work with thermodynamic modeling, using Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model system and ferrihydrite precipitates as the iron source with low solubility. Our experiments show that competitive growth inhibition by the siderophore pyochelin is indeed efficient, and that inhibition of a competitor can even have a stronger growth-promoting effect than solubilization of precipitated iron. Based on the results of our thermodynamic models we conclude that the observed inhibition of a competitor is effective because sequestered iron is only very slowly replenished by the dissolution of precipitated iron. Our research highlights the importance of competitive benefits mediated by siderophores, and underlines that the dynamics of siderophore production and uptake in environmental communities could be a signature of competitive, not just cooperative, dynamics.

Modelling the multidimensional niche by linking functional traits to competitive performance

PubMed Central

Maynard, Daniel S.; Leonard, Kenneth E.; Drake, John M.; Hall, David W.; Crowther, Thomas W.; Bradford, Mark A.

2015-01-01

Linking competitive outcomes to environmental conditions is necessary for understanding species' distributions and responses to environmental change. Despite this importance, generalizable approaches for predicting competitive outcomes across abiotic gradients are lacking, driven largely by the highly complex and context-dependent nature of biotic interactions. Here, we present and empirically test a novel niche model that uses functional traits to model the niche space of organisms and predict competitive outcomes of co-occurring populations across multiple resource gradients. The model makes no assumptions about the underlying mode of competition and instead applies to those settings where relative competitive ability across environments correlates with a quantifiable performance metric. To test the model, a series of controlled microcosm experiments were conducted using genetically related strains of a widespread microbe. The model identified trait microevolution and performance differences among strains, with the predicted competitive ability of each organism mapped across a two-dimensional carbon and nitrogen resource space. Areas of coexistence and competitive dominance between strains were identified, and the predicted competitive outcomes were validated in approximately 95% of the pairings. By linking trait variation to competitive ability, our work demonstrates a generalizable approach for predicting and modelling competitive outcomes across changing environmental contexts. PMID:26136444

COMPETITION AND QUALITY IN HOME HEALTH CARE MARKETS†

PubMed Central

JUNG, KYOUNGRAE; POLSKY, DANIEL

2013-01-01

SUMMARY Market-based solutions are often proposed to improve health care quality; yet evidence on the role of competition in quality in non-hospital settings is sparse. We examine the relationship between competition and quality in home health care. This market is different from other markets in that service delivery takes place in patients’ homes, which implies low costs of market entry and exit for agencies. We use 6 years of panel data for Medicare beneficiaries during the early 2000s. We identify the competition effect from within-market variation in competition over time. We analyze three quality measures: functional improvements, the number of home health visits, and discharges without hospitalization. We find that the relationship between competition and home health quality is nonlinear and its pattern differs by quality measure. Competition has positive effects on functional improvements and the number of visits in most ranges, but in the most competitive markets, functional outcomes and the number of visits slightly drop. Competition has a negative effect on discharges without hospitalization that is strongest in the most competitive markets. This finding is different from prior research on hospital markets and suggests that market-specific environments should be considered in developing polices to promote competition. PMID:23670849

KSC-2011-3939

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2011-3941

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2011-3946

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2011-3944

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2011-3940

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2011-3947

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2011-3943

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2011-3945

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2011-3942

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2011-3948

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-23

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-23

Team Raptor members from the University of North Dakota College of Engineering and Mines check their robot, named "Marsbot," in the RoboPit at NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-24

Derrick Matthews, left, with Kennedy Space Center's Communication and Public Engagement Directorate, and Kurt Leucht, event emcee, provide commentary at the mining arena during NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-24

Team members from West Virginia University prepare their mining robot for a test run in a giant sandbox before their scheduled mining run in the arena during NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-26

Inside the Apollo-Saturn V Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, teams from the 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition eat dinner before the awards ceremony begins. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. used their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participated in other competition requirements, May 22-26 at the visitor complex. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-24

Twin mining robots from the University of Iowa dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, during NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-17

Team members from Case Western Reserve University pause with their robot miner in the RobotPits on the fourth day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 17, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-17

Team members from The University of Utah pause with their robot miner in the RobotPits on the fourth day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 17, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-17

First-time participants from Saginaw Valley State University pause with their robot miner in the RobotPits on the fourth day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 17, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Opening Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-15

On the second day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 15, team members from Temple University work on their robot miner in the RobotPits in the Educator Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

Team members from the University of Colorado at Boulder pause with their robot miner outside of the mining arena on the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

On the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, team members from Temple University prepare their robot miner for its turn in the mining arena at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

On the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, team members prepare their robot miner for its turn in the mining arena at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-17

Team members from The University of Alabama pause with their robot miner in the RobotPits on the fourth day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 17, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

On the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, judges watch as a robot miner digs in the dirt in the mining arena at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

On the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, team members from the University of Portland prepare their robot miner for its turn in the mining arena at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

Members of a college team watch on the monitor as their robot miner digs in the mining arena on the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-17

Team members from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology pause with their robot miner in the RobotPits on the fourth day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 17, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

On the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, a university team cleans their robot miner after its turn in the mining arena at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Opening Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-15

Team members from Iowa State University prepare their robot miner on the second day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 15, in the RobotPits in the Educator Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

On the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, team members from the University of Portland pause with their robot miner before its turn in the mining arena at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Setup

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-14

On the first day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, set-up day on May 14, college team members work on their robot miner in the RobotPits in the Educator Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-16

Team members from New York University prepare their robot miner for its turn in the mining arena on the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-17

Team members from New York University work on their robot miner in the RobotPits on the fourth day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 17, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-17

Team members from York College CUNY are with their robot miner in the RobotPits on the fourth day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 17, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-17

Team members from the University of Arkansas pause with their robot miner in the RobotPits on the fourth day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 17, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Media Day

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-25

NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, at right, talks with Kurt Leucht, event emcee, during media day at the agency's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. At the mining arena, Cabana shared his thoughts about the competition and the progress made to make Kennedy a multi-user spaceport. Teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. used their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participated in other competition requirements, May 22-26. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

KSC-2011-4171

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-28

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA Kennedy Space Center's Apollo/Saturn V Center, participants applaud the winning team of the competition during the NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition award ceremony. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India participated in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Competition Underway at NASA 2017 Robotic Mining Competition

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-24

NASA’s Eighth Annual Robotic Mining Competition (RMC) began its first of three days of actual competition at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Forty-five teams of college undergraduate and graduate students – and their uniquely-designed and built mining robots – race against the clock to collect and move the most simulated Martian soil. Students also are judged on how they use their robots to inspire their community about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Competition continues through Friday. Managed by, and held annually at Kennedy Space Center, RMC is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to engage and retain students in STEM fields by expanding opportunities for student research and design. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions with potential use on NASA’s deep space exploration missions, including to Mars.

[Effects of neighbor competition on growth, fine root morphology and distribution of Schima superba and Cunninghamia lanceolata in different nutrient environments].

PubMed

Yao, Jia Bao; Chu, Xiu Li; Zhou, Zhi Chun; Tong, Jian She; Wang, Hui; Yu, Jia Zhong

2017-05-18

Taking Schima superba and Cunninghamia lanceolata as test materials, a pot experiment was conducted to simulate the heterogeneous and homogeneous forest soil nutrient environments, and design three planting modes including single plant, two-strain pure plant and two-strain mixed ones to reason the promotion in mixed S. superba and C. lanceolata plantation and the competitive advantage of S. superba. Results showed that compared with the homogeneous nutrient environment, both S. superba and C. lanceolata had the higher seedling height and dry matter accumulation, when mixed in the heterogeneous nutrient environment, S. superba displayed the obviously competitive advantage, which related to its root plasticity. The fine root of S. superba mixed in each diameter class showed a lot of hyperplasia, and the root total length, surface area and volume of which were 80%-180% higher than that of C. lanceolata. S. superba took the advantage of the compensatory growth strategy of vertical direction in fine roots, namely, they still multiplied to gain greater competitive advantage in low nutrient patches, besides occupying eutrophic surface. The different soil colonization and niche differentiation in fine root of S. superba and C. lanceolata alleviated the strong competition for nutrients of the roots of the two species, and improved the mixed-plantation production. Pure plantation of S. superba harvested the lower yield, which due to the root self-recognition inhibited the growth of root system. Fine roots staggered and evenly distributed on the space might be a reason for stable structure of pure S. superba plantation. So, it was recommended that block surface layer soil preparation and fertilization are used to improve the soil nutrient distribution, and the mixed plantation is constructed to promote the growth of S. superba and C. lanceolata, at the same time, the stand density is regulated to promote tree growth for the pure artificial S. superba plantation which had already been built.

An Examination of Regional Competitiveness: Early Findings from Banten, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holis, Y. M.; Syabri, I.; Prabatmojo, H.

2018-05-01

Over time, the regional development planning paradigm continues to change procedural, substantive, actor and institutional aspects. The increasing globalization and decentralized governance systems will continue to determine how a country or region can compete and even be able to take advantage of the positive value of economic globalization. This certainly provides challenges and opportunities for the renewal of regional development concepts, in particular, the concept of regional competitiveness. This concept still lacks a scientific basis and its interpretation is still in debate. To date, the clear scientific basis is the concepts of corporate and national competitiveness. Whereas, the concept of competitiveness at the meso-level, namely the competitiveness of the region, becomes very important. Regional competitiveness prepares a region and to survive in response to the more open dynamics of economic globalization and the system of decentralization of authority in Indonesia. The objective of this research is to complement the concept of competitiveness which is still at the level of microeconomics (business theory) and macroeconomy (theory of growth) with the concept of competitiveness at the regional level that focuses on (i) finding determinant factors at the regional level in Indonesia; (ii) profiling regional competitiveness in several regions; and (iii) assessing the role of local government (institutional and actor) on determinants of regional competitiveness. This research is carried out by using a mixed-methods approach with a concurrent triangulation strategy model. The research follows the stages of literature study to identify the determinant factors of regional competitiveness relevant to the purpose of research, followed by descriptive analysis of the variables and selected by statistics through Analytical Network Process (ANP) to become the determinant factor of competitiveness. In accordance with the concept and definition of regional competitiveness, this research develops five main indicators determining regional competitiveness and its 30 variables. These indicators are regional economy; manpower and human resources; productive business environment; infrastructure; natural resources and environment; and banking and financial institutions. The data used are primary and secondary data by compiling from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and questionnaires to the Regional Development Planning Agency (BAPPEDA) following by in-depth interviews with experts. This research uses the case study of Banten Province. The main reason is that Banten has varied areas, ranging from developed cities to lagging regions. It is expected to represent other areas in Indonesia. This research provides an alternative framework of competitiveness analysis methods at the regional level. The concept of regional competitiveness can be a catalyst and enabler to the development of regional specialization and networking among regions in the era of economic globalization.

The efficiency of Amberjet 4200 resin in removing nitrate in the presence of competitive anions from Shiraz drinking water.

PubMed

Dehghani, M; Haghighi, A Binaee; Zamanian, Z

2010-06-01

The aim of this research is to study the feasibility of removing nitrates from water by means of anion exchange. In the purposed work an attempt was made to utilize strong basic anion resin to remove nitrate in the presence of competitive anion. Amberjet Cl- 4200 ion exchange resin was used in a batch scale. The fixation rate of nitrate without the presences of any competitive anion was almost constant (94.60-96.43) when the nitrate concentrations are in the range of 100-150 mg L(-1). The fixation rate of nitrate in the presences of two competitive anions (sulphate and chloride) was reduced to 82% when the concentration of nitrate was 100 mg L(-1).

Individual-Environment Interactions in Swimming: The Smallest Unit for Analysing the Emergence of Coordination Dynamics in Performance?

PubMed

Guignard, Brice; Rouard, Annie; Chollet, Didier; Hart, John; Davids, Keith; Seifert, Ludovic

2017-08-01

Displacement in competitive swimming is highly dependent on fluid characteristics, since athletes use these properties to propel themselves. It is essential for sport scientists and practitioners to clearly identify the interactions that emerge between each individual swimmer and properties of an aquatic environment. Traditionally, the two protagonists in these interactions have been studied separately. Determining the impact of each swimmer's movements on fluid flow, and vice versa, is a major challenge. Classic biomechanical research approaches have focused on swimmers' actions, decomposing stroke characteristics for analysis, without exploring perturbations to fluid flows. Conversely, fluid mechanics research has sought to record fluid behaviours, isolated from the constraints of competitive swimming environments (e.g. analyses in two-dimensions, fluid flows passively studied on mannequins or robot effectors). With improvements in technology, however, recent investigations have focused on the emergent circular couplings between swimmers' movements and fluid dynamics. Here, we provide insights into concepts and tools that can explain these on-going dynamic interactions in competitive swimming within the theoretical framework of ecological dynamics.

Field manipulations of resources mediate the transition from intraspecific competition to facilitation.

PubMed

Svanfeldt, Karin; Monro, Keyne; Marshall, Dustin J

2017-05-01

Population density affects individual performance, though its effects are often mixed. For sessile species, increases in population density typically reduce performance. Still, cases of positive density-dependence do occur in sessile systems and demand explanation. The stress gradient hypothesis (SGH) predicts that under stressful conditions, positive effects of facilitation may outweigh the negative effects of competition. While some elements of the SGH are well studied, its potential to explain intraspecific facilitation has received little attention. Further, there have been questions regarding whether the SGH holds if the stressor is a resource. Most studies of interactions between the environment and intraspecific facilitation have relied on natural environmental gradients; manipulative studies are much rarer. To test the effects of intraspecific density and resources, we manipulated resource availability over natural population densities for the marine bryozoan Watersipora subtorquata. We found negative effects of density on colony performance in low resource environments, but mainly positive density-dependence in high resource environments. By adding resources, competition effects were reduced and the positive effects of facilitation were revealed. Our results suggest that resource availability mediates the relative strength of competition and facilitation in our system. We also suggest that intraspecific facilitation is more common than may be appreciated and that environmental variation may mediate the balance between negative and positive density-dependence. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2017 British Ecological Society.

42 CFR 476.72 - Review of the quality of care of risk-basis health maintenance organizations and competitive...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Review of the quality of care of risk-basis health... MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS UTILIZATION AND QUALITY CONTROL REVIEW Review Responsibilities of Utilization and Quality Control...

Alternative Fuels Data Center: New Jersey Utility Saves With Alternative

Science.gov Websites

electric car. College Students Engineer Efficient Vehicles in EcoCAR 2 Competition Aug. 2, 2014 Photo of a FuelA> Jersey Utility Saves With Alternative Fuel to someone by E-mail Share Alternative Fuels . For information about this project, contact New Jersey Clean Cities Coalition. Download QuickTime

Microbial competition between Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus monitored by imaging mass spectrometry

PubMed Central

Gonzalez, David J.; Haste, Nina M.; Hollands, Andrew; Fleming, Tinya C.; Hamby, Matthew; Pogliano, Kit; Nizet, Victor

2011-01-01

Microbial competition exists in the general environment, such as soil or aquatic habitats, upon or within unicellular or multicellular eukaryotic life forms. The molecular actions that govern microbial competition, leading to niche establishment and microbial monopolization, remain undetermined. The emerging technology of imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) enabled the observation that there is directionality in the metabolic output of the organism Bacillus subtilis when co-cultured with Staphylococcus aureus. The directionally released antibiotic alters S. aureus virulence factor production and colonization. Therefore, IMS provides insight into the largely hidden nature of competitive microbial encounters and niche establishment, and provides a paradigm for future antibiotic discovery. PMID:21719540

Technology Assessment Need: Review on Attractiveness and Competitiveness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salwa Sait, Siti; Merlinda Muharam, Farrah; Chin, Thoo Ai; Sulaiman, Zuraidah

2017-06-01

Technology assessment is crucial in managing technology for the purpose of technology exploitation. With business environment continuously changing, firms have to address this issue critically as technology is considered one of the important elements to evaluate performance and gain competitive advantage. Missteps in deciding the best technology to be developed, employed or maintained would cost the firm overall value. To fulfil the need of finding the appropriate scale to assess suitable technology, this paper summarizes that technology assessment (TA) should cover two main aspects, namely technology attractiveness and competitiveness. These components are seen capable to link the scale suggested towards evaluation of financial and non-financial performance towards competitive advantage.

Industry Cluster's Adaptive Co-competition Behavior Modeling Inspired by Swarm Intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiang, Wei; Ye, Feifan

Adaptation helps the individual enterprise to adjust its behavior to uncertainties in environment and hence determines a healthy growth of both the individuals and the whole industry cluster as well. This paper is focused on the study on co-competition adaptation behavior of industry cluster, which is inspired by swarm intelligence mechanisms. By referencing to ant cooperative transportation and ant foraging behavior and their related swarm intelligence approaches, the cooperative adaptation and competitive adaptation behavior are studied and relevant models are proposed. Those adaptive co-competition behaviors model can be integrated to the multi-agent system of industry cluster to make the industry cluster model more realistic.

Seeking the competitive advantage: it's more than cost reduction.

PubMed

South, S F

1999-01-01

Most organizations focus considerable time and energy on reducing operating costs as a way to attain marketplace advantage. This strategy was not inappropriate in the past. To be competitive in the future, however, focus must be placed on other issues, not just cost reduction. The near future will be dominated by service industries, knowledge management, and virtual partnerships, with production optimization and flexibility, innovation, and strong partnerships defining those organizations that attain competitive advantage. Competitive advantage will reside in clarifying the vision and strategic plan, reviewing and redesigning work processes to optimize resources and value-added work, and creating change-ready environments and empowered workforces.

Energetics and Application of Heterotrophy in Acetogenic Bacteria.

PubMed

Schuchmann, Kai; Müller, Volker

2016-07-15

Acetogenic bacteria are a diverse group of strictly anaerobic bacteria that utilize the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway for CO2 fixation and energy conservation. These microorganisms play an important part in the global carbon cycle and are a key component of the anaerobic food web. Their most prominent metabolic feature is autotrophic growth with molecular hydrogen and carbon dioxide as the substrates. However, most members also show an outstanding metabolic flexibility for utilizing a vast variety of different substrates. In contrast to autotrophic growth, which is hardly competitive, metabolic flexibility is seen as a key ability of acetogens to compete in ecosystems and might explain the almost-ubiquitous distribution of acetogenic bacteria in anoxic environments. This review covers the latest findings with respect to the heterotrophic metabolism of acetogenic bacteria, including utilization of carbohydrates, lactate, and different alcohols, especially in the model acetogen Acetobacterium woodii Modularity of metabolism, a key concept of pathway design in synthetic biology, together with electron bifurcation, to overcome energetic barriers, appears to be the basis for the amazing substrate spectrum. At the same time, acetogens depend on only a relatively small number of enzymes to expand the substrate spectrum. We will discuss the energetic advantages of coupling CO2 reduction to fermentations that exploit otherwise-inaccessible substrates and the ecological advantages, as well as the biotechnological applications of the heterotrophic metabolism of acetogens. Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Energetics and Application of Heterotrophy in Acetogenic Bacteria

PubMed Central

Schuchmann, Kai

2016-01-01

Acetogenic bacteria are a diverse group of strictly anaerobic bacteria that utilize the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway for CO2 fixation and energy conservation. These microorganisms play an important part in the global carbon cycle and are a key component of the anaerobic food web. Their most prominent metabolic feature is autotrophic growth with molecular hydrogen and carbon dioxide as the substrates. However, most members also show an outstanding metabolic flexibility for utilizing a vast variety of different substrates. In contrast to autotrophic growth, which is hardly competitive, metabolic flexibility is seen as a key ability of acetogens to compete in ecosystems and might explain the almost-ubiquitous distribution of acetogenic bacteria in anoxic environments. This review covers the latest findings with respect to the heterotrophic metabolism of acetogenic bacteria, including utilization of carbohydrates, lactate, and different alcohols, especially in the model acetogen Acetobacterium woodii. Modularity of metabolism, a key concept of pathway design in synthetic biology, together with electron bifurcation, to overcome energetic barriers, appears to be the basis for the amazing substrate spectrum. At the same time, acetogens depend on only a relatively small number of enzymes to expand the substrate spectrum. We will discuss the energetic advantages of coupling CO2 reduction to fermentations that exploit otherwise-inaccessible substrates and the ecological advantages, as well as the biotechnological applications of the heterotrophic metabolism of acetogens. PMID:27208103

WWREX: A case study in the development of Internet E-Commerce in the energy industry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yeich, K.; Horner, D.; Dunn, A.

Even more so than the World Wide Web, the utility industry is undergoing a massive deregulation that is turning it into a Wild West environment that has fostered fierce competition, new technology and new services in the energy marketplace. It has become increasingly complex for consumers, suppliers and utilities to buy and sell energy at the best prices. With the help of the Internet, Per-Se Technologies and North American Power have developed the World Wide Retail Energy eXchange (WWREX): a real-time, Web-based electronic commerce application that matches suppliers of electricity and natural gas with potential customers online. This service ismore » the first online application to facilitate the buying and selling of energy via the Internet. Designed to take advantage of the deregulated utilities marketplace, REX benefits multiple market players. With REX, business energy consumers can buy energy at the best price, from multiple suppliers and with significant time and cost reductions. Suppliers can instantly access new customer bases and close efficient, bulk transactions without the traditional sales and marketing costs associated with selling to a diverse set of consumers. The challenges and solutions of this project illustrate the technologies and techniques in creating a viable E-Commerce application. The resulting system provides effective electronic commerce and solves a critical business need at a relatively low cost.« less

The Congressional Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Caucus and the Congressional Academic Competition: History and Current

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-02-20

courses, and a tutorial for developing apps on Android phones and in Apples and Windows environments.10 Judging Members are free to select judges...onlinecao.house.gov/housenet- multimedia /code/stem-member-page.txt. The STEM Caucus and the Congessional Academic Competition: History and Current

Does Competition among Schools Encourage Grade Inflation?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Patrick

2010-01-01

This paper considers whether high schools in competitive environments use grade inflation to attract and retain families, perhaps in addition to more constructive responses. Two measures of grade inflation are used: the cutoffs used by each school to assign a letter grade to a percent score and high school grade point average after controlling for…

Does Competition among Schools Encourage Grade Inflation?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Patrick

2010-01-01

This paper considers whether high schools in competitive environments use grade inflation to attract and retain families, perhaps in addition to more constructive responses. Two measures of grade inflation are used: the cutoffs used by each school to assign a letter grade to a percent score; and high school GPA after controlling for test scores, a…

Differentiation and Collaboration in a Competitive Environment: A Case Study of Ontario Postsecondary Education System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jafar, Hayfa

2015-01-01

The essay explores how the dynamics of competition and collaboration among Ontario's higher education institutions contribute to the system's differentiation strategy. The essay implements a content analysis approach to the Strategic Mandate Agreement submissions signed between the Ontario Government and the Ontario Colleges and Universities in…

A Study of Factors Affecting University Professors' Research Output: Perspectives of Taiwanese Professors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Jason Cheng-Cheng

2017-01-01

Higher education in Taiwan is facing competition and challenges from the macro environment of globalization. Taiwan's key policy direction is enhancing university quality in order to respond to these future trends. Universities' international competitiveness relies on not only faculty members' teaching quality, but also their research performance.…

Effect of soil and vegetation on growth of planted white spruce.

Treesearch

Donald A. Perala

1987-01-01

White spruce container stock grew better on a sandy loam soil than on a silty clay, and much better without herbaceous competitions. Herbaceous competition was less vigorous on the sandy loam soil following glyphosate treatment, but was more vigorous on the silty clay. Certain spruce genotypes excelled under different field environments.

The Effect of Market-Oriented Subcultures on Post-Merger Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heidrich, Balazs; Chandler, Nick

2011-01-01

Over the last decade, HEIs (higher education institutions) around the world have undergone transformation for a number of reasons, including mergers and acquisitions. The reasons for this vary from remaining competitive in an ever-increasingly competitive academic environment to being forced to do so. With deeply ingrained traditions, long tenures…

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program: A Model for Competition in Rural America?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mueller, Keith J.; McBride, Timothy D.; Andrews, Courtney; Fraser, Roslyn; Xu, Liyan

2005-01-01

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) created the Medicare Advantage (MA) program, which promotes the entry of private Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans into regions that have not previously had Medicare managed care plans. The assumption that a competitive environment will develop is based on…

Interspecific interactions in trematode communities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lafferty, Kevin D.; Lewis, E.E.; Campbell, J.F.; Sukhdeo, M.V.K.

2002-01-01

This chapter reviews the behavioural ecology of trematodes, focusing on intramolluscular stages. Interspecific competitive interactions, their frequency, dominance hierarchies and resolutions are discussed. Strategies employed by larval trematode species to adapt to a hostile, competitive environment, how these adaptations shape larval trematode communities, and how altered trematode communities can affect ecosystems and human health are reviewed.

Exploring the Development of a Competitive-Advantage Model for Online Education in a Small State University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Essary, Michael

2011-01-01

In the 2000s, changes in the external environment, including changing student demographics, increased competition, and declining government support, are affecting public higher education administrators. The growth in online enrollment is increasing at a rate higher than the total higher education enrollment, and the majority of university…

Estimating market boundaries for health care facilities and services.

PubMed

Massey, T K; Blake, F W

1987-09-01

Competition in the health care industry is intensifying. The changing environment is making it necessary for executives to integrate quantitative market identification methods into their strategic planning systems. The authors propose one such method that explicitly recognizes the relative strength of competition in the marketplace and offer two examples of its implementation.

Some New Evidence of the Character of Competition among Higher Education Institutions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Robert F.; Shen, Jianshou

1999-01-01

Employing a simple enrollment-demand model, investigates the regional market environment of a private, church-related, comprehensive university. Finds a significant competitive threat coming from the private sector within the region, which raises the net price elasticity of demand for this institution to well above unity. (22 references) (MLH)

Autonomy, Professionalism and Management Structure in the German University System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayer, Ingo

2011-01-01

Declining public finances and ever increasing national and international competition force state-owned German universities to adapt to an increasingly competitive environment. In a first phase the universities have concentrated their efforts on the optimisation of budgeting processes and on the development of strategies and goals to come to a more…

Competition favors elk over beaver in a riparian willow ecosystem

USGS Publications Warehouse

Baker, B.W.; Peinetti, H.R.; Coughenour, M.C.; Johnson, T.L.

2012-01-01

Beaver (Castor spp.) conservation requires an understanding of their complex interactions with competing herbivores. Simulation modeling offers a controlled environment to examine long-term dynamics in ecosystems driven by uncontrollable variables. We used a new version of the SAVANNA ecosystem model to investigate beaver (C. Canadensis) and elk (Cervus elapses) competition for willow (Salix spp.). We initialized the model with field data from Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA, to simulate a 4-ha riparian ecosystem containing beaver, elk, and willow. We found beaver persisted indefinitely when elk density was or = 30 elk km_2. The loss of tall willow preceded rapid beaver declines, thus willow condition may predict beaver population trajectory in natural environments. Beaver were able to persist with slightly higher elk densities if beaver alternated their use of foraging sites in a rest-rotation pattern rather than maintained continuous use. Thus, we found asymmetrical competition for willow strongly favored elk over beaver in a simulated montane ecosystem. Finally, we discuss application of the SAVANNA model and mechanisms of competition relative to beaver persistence as metapopulations, ecological resistance and alternative state models, and ecosystem regulation.

Advances in Collaborative Filtering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koren, Yehuda; Bell, Robert

The collaborative filtering (CF) approach to recommenders has recently enjoyed much interest and progress. The fact that it played a central role within the recently completed Netflix competition has contributed to its popularity. This chapter surveys the recent progress in the field. Matrix factorization techniques, which became a first choice for implementing CF, are described together with recent innovations. We also describe several extensions that bring competitive accuracy into neighborhood methods, which used to dominate the field. The chapter demonstrates how to utilize temporal models and implicit feedback to extend models accuracy. In passing, we include detailed descriptions of some the central methods developed for tackling the challenge of the Netflix Prize competition.

Evaluation of Market Design Agents: The Mertacor Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stavrogiannis, Lampros C.; Mitkas, Pericles A.

The annual Trading Agent Competition for Market Design, CAT, provides a testbed to study the mechanisms that modern stock exchanges use in their effort to attract potential traders while maximizing their profit. This paper presents an evaluation of the agents that participated in the 2008 competition. The evaluation is based on the analysis of the CAT finals as well as on the results obtained from post-tournament experiments. We present Mertacor, our entrant for 2008, and compare it with the other available agents. In addition, we introduce a simple yet effective way of computing the global competitive equilibrium that Mertacor utilizes and discuss its importance for the game.

A Study on Standard Competition with Network Effect Based on Evolutionary Game Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Ye; Wang, Bingdong; Li, Kangning

Owing to networks widespread in modern society, standard competition with network effect is now endowed with new connotation. This paper aims to study the impact of network effect on standard competition; it is organized in the mode of "introduction-model setup-equilibrium analysis-conclusion". Starting from a well-structured model of evolutionary game, it is then extended to a dynamic analysis. This article proves both theoretically and empirically that whether or not a standard can lead the market trends depends on the utility it would bring, and the author also discusses some advisable strategies revolving around the two factors of initial position and border break.

Managing SRS competition in a miniature visible Nd:YVO4/BaWO4 Raman laser.

PubMed

Li, Xiaoli; Lee, Andrew J; Huo, Yujing; Zhang, Huaijin; Wang, Jiyang; Piper, James A; Pask, Helen M; Spence, David J

2012-08-13

We demonstrate the operation of a compact and efficient continuous wave (CW) self-Raman laser utilizing a Nd:YVO4 gain crystal and BaWO4 Raman crystal, generating yellow emission at 590 nm. We investigate the competition that occurs between Stokes lines in the Nd:YVO4 and BaWO4 crystals, and within the BaWO4 crystal itself. Through careful consideration of crystal length and orientation, we are able to suppress competition between Stokes lines, and generate pure yellow emission at 590 nm with output power of 194 mW for just 3.8 W pump power.

Competitive Procurement of Electrical Power.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-12-01

clear authority to form them was granted by the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 ( PURPA ). To understand PURPA . it is necessary to...Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, ( PURPA ); and 2. Chapter 647, 26 Statute 209 (1980), as amended, the Sherman Act. More than any others, these statutes and...Number 5 further directs that competition will be initiated when it is "most advanta- geous to the Government."’ 6 When Congress passed PURPA on 9

The Growth Dynamics of Words: How Historical Context Shapes the Competitive Linguistic Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tenenbaum, Joel; Petersen, Alexander; Havlin, Shlomo; Stanley, H. Eugene

2012-02-01

Using the massive Google n-gram database of over 10^11 word uses in English, Hebrew, and Spanish, we explore the connection between the growth rates of relative word use and the observed growth rates of disparate competing actors in a common environment such as businesses, scientific journals, and universities, supporting the concept that a language's lexicon is a generic arena for competition, evolving according to selection laws. We find aggregate-level anomalies in the collective statistics corresponding to the time of key historical events such as World War II and the Balfour Declaration.

Understanding Emerging Impacts and Requirements Related to Utility-Scale Solar Development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hartmann, Heidi M.; Grippo, Mark A.; Heath, Garvin A.

2016-09-01

Utility-scale solar energy plays an important role in the nation’s strategy to address climate change threats through increased deployment of renewable energy technologies, and both the federal government and individual states have established specific goals for increased solar energy development. In order to achieve these goals, much attention is paid to making utility-scale solar energy cost-competitive with other conventional energy sources, while concurrently conducting solar development in an environmentally sound manner.

Are invasive plants more competitive than native conspecifics? Patterns vary with competitors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Yulong; Feng, Yulong; Valiente-Banuet, Alfonso; Li, Yangping; Liao, Zhiyong; Zhang, Jiaolin; Chen, Yajun

2015-10-01

Invasive plants are sometimes considered to be more competitive than their native conspecifics, according to the prediction that the invader reallocates resources from defense to growth due to liberation of natural enemies [‘Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability’ (EICA) hypothesis]. However, the differences in competitive ability may depend on the identity of competitors. In order to test the effects of competitors, Ageratina adenophora plants from both native and invasive ranges competed directly, and competed with native residents from both invasive (China) and native (Mexico) ranges respectively. Invasive A. adenophora plants were more competitive than their conspecifics from native populations when competing with natives from China (interspecific competition), but not when competing with natives from Mexico. Invasive A. adenophora plants also showed higher competitive ability when grown in high-density monoculture communities of plants from the same population (intrapopulation competition). In contrast, invasive A. adenophora plants showed lower competitive ability when competing with plants from native populations (intraspecific competition). Our results indicated that in the invasive range A. adenophora has evolved to effectively cope with co-occurring natives and high density environments, contributing to invasion success. Here, we showed the significant effects of competitors, which should be considered carefully when testing the EICA hypothesis.

Are invasive plants more competitive than native conspecifics? Patterns vary with competitors.

PubMed

Zheng, Yulong; Feng, Yulong; Valiente-Banuet, Alfonso; Li, Yangping; Liao, Zhiyong; Zhang, Jiaolin; Chen, Yajun

2015-10-22

Invasive plants are sometimes considered to be more competitive than their native conspecifics, according to the prediction that the invader reallocates resources from defense to growth due to liberation of natural enemies ['Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability' (EICA) hypothesis]. However, the differences in competitive ability may depend on the identity of competitors. In order to test the effects of competitors, Ageratina adenophora plants from both native and invasive ranges competed directly, and competed with native residents from both invasive (China) and native (Mexico) ranges respectively. Invasive A. adenophora plants were more competitive than their conspecifics from native populations when competing with natives from China (interspecific competition), but not when competing with natives from Mexico. Invasive A. adenophora plants also showed higher competitive ability when grown in high-density monoculture communities of plants from the same population (intrapopulation competition). In contrast, invasive A. adenophora plants showed lower competitive ability when competing with plants from native populations (intraspecific competition). Our results indicated that in the invasive range A. adenophora has evolved to effectively cope with co-occurring natives and high density environments, contributing to invasion success. Here, we showed the significant effects of competitors, which should be considered carefully when testing the EICA hypothesis.

Warming magnifies predation and reduces prey coexistence in a model litter arthropod system.

PubMed

Thakur, Madhav P; Künne, Tom; Griffin, John N; Eisenhauer, Nico

2017-03-29

Climate warming can destabilize interactions between competitors as smaller organisms gain advantages in warmer environments. Whether and how warming-induced effects on competitive interactions are modified by predation remains unknown. We hypothesized that predation will offset the competitive advantage of smaller prey species in warmer environments because of their greater vulnerability to predation. To test this, we assembled a litter arthropod community with two Collembola species ( Folsomia candida and Proisotoma minuta ) of different body sizes across a temperature gradient (three thermal environments) and in the presence and absence of predatory mites. Predatory mites reduced Collembola coexistence with increasing temperatures. Contradicting our hypothesis, the larger prey species always outperformed the smaller prey species in warmer environments with predators. Larger prey probably benefited as they expressed a greater trait (body length) plasticity to warming. Warming can thus magnify predation effects and reduce the probability of prey coexistence. © 2017 The Author(s).

Incorporating health care quality into health antitrust law

PubMed Central

2008-01-01

Background Antitrust authorities treat price as a proxy for hospital quality since health care quality is difficult to observe. As the ability to measure quality improved, more research became necessary to investigate the relationship between hospital market power and patient outcomes. This paper examines the impact of hospital competition on the quality of care as measured by the risk-adjusted mortality rates with the hospital as the unit of analysis. The study separately examines the effect of competition on non-profit hospitals. Methods We use California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) data from 1997 through 2002. Empirical model is a cross-sectional study of 373 hospitals. Regression analysis is used to estimate the relationship between Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) risk-adjusted mortality rates and hospital competition. Results Regression results show lower risk-adjusted mortality rates in the presence of a more competitive environment. This result holds for all alternative hospital market definitions. Non-profit hospitals do not have better patient outcomes than investor-owned hospitals. However, they tend to provide better quality in less competitive environments. CABG volume did not have a significant effect on patient outcomes. Conclusion Quality should be incorporated into the antitrust analysis. When mergers lead to higher prices and lower quality, thus lower social welfare, the antitrust challenge of hospital mergers is warranted. The impact of lower hospital competition on quality of care delivered by non-profit hospitals is ambiguous. PMID:18430219

Robotic Mining Competition - Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The team from Iowa State University received second place in the Outreach Project category. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Bethanne Hull, NASA Education specialist and lead Outreach Project judge. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The University of Alabama Team Astrobotics received first place in the Outreach Project category. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Bethanne Hull, NASA Education specialist and lead Outreach Project judge. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The University of Alabama Team Astrobotics received first place for their Systems Engineering Paper. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Jonette Stecklein, lead systems engineering paper judge. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The University of Alabama Team Astrobotics received first place in the On-Site Mining Award. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Rob Mueller, lead mining judge. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The University of Alabama Team Astrobotics received third place in the Slide Presentation and Demonstration award category. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Daniel Hull, lead presentation judge. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The team from The University of Akron received third place for their Systems Engineering Paper. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Jonette Stecklein, lead systems engineering paper judge. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The University of Alabama Team Astrobotics received the Efficient Use of Communications Power Award. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Kurt Leucht, a NASA engineer in Swamp Works and event emcee. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The team from Kent State University received third place in the On-Site Mining Award. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Rob Mueller, lead mining judge. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Experimental evolution of protozoan traits in response to interspecific competition.

PubMed

terHorst, C P

2011-01-01

Decades of experiments have demonstrated the ecological effect of competition, but experimental evidence for competitive effects on trait evolution is rare. I measured the evolution of six protozoan traits in response to competitors from the inquiline community of pitcher plants. Replicate populations of Colpoda, a ciliated protozoan, were allowed to evolve in response to intra- and interspecific competition for 20 days (approximately 100 generations), before traits were measured in two common garden environments. Populations that evolved with interspecific competition had smaller cell sizes, produced fewer cysts and had higher population growth rates relative to populations grown in monoculture. The presence of interspecific competitors led to differential lineage sorting, most likely by increasing the strength of selection. These results are the first to demonstrate protozoan evolution in response to competition and may have implications for species coexistence in this system. © 2010 The Author. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2010 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Robotic Mining Competition - Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The team from The University of Akron received third place in the Outreach Project category. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Bethanne Hull, NASA Education specialist and lead Outreach Project judge. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

The marketing of partial hospitalization.

PubMed

Millsap, P; Brown, E; Kiser, L; Pruitt, D

1987-09-01

Health-care professionals are currently operating in the context of a rapidly changing health-care delivery system, including the move away from inpatient services to outpatient services in order to control costs. Those who practice in partial-hospital settings are in a position to offer effective, cost-efficient services; however, there continue to be obstacles which hinder appropriate utilization of the modality. The development and use of a well-designed marketing plan is one strategy for removing these obstacles. This paper presents a brief overview of the marketing process, ideas for developing a marketing plan, and several examples of specific marketing strategies as well as ways to monitor their effectiveness. Partial-hospital providers must take an active role in answering the calls for alternative sources of psychiatric care. A comprehensive, education-oriented marketing approach will increase the public's awareness of such alternatives and enable programs to survive in a competitive environment.

Industrial fuel ethanol yeasts contain adaptive copy number changes in genes involved in vitamin B1 and B6 biosynthesis.

PubMed

Stambuk, Boris U; Dunn, Barbara; Alves, Sergio L; Duval, Eduarda H; Sherlock, Gavin

2009-12-01

Fuel ethanol is now a global energy commodity that is competitive with gasoline. Using microarray-based comparative genome hybridization (aCGH), we have determined gene copy number variations (CNVs) common to five industrially important fuel ethanol Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains responsible for the production of billions of gallons of fuel ethanol per year from sugarcane. These strains have significant amplifications of the telomeric SNO and SNZ genes, which are involved in the biosynthesis of vitamins B6 (pyridoxine) and B1 (thiamin). We show that increased copy number of these genes confers the ability to grow more efficiently under the repressing effects of thiamin, especially in medium lacking pyridoxine and with high sugar concentrations. These genetic changes have likely been adaptive and selected for in the industrial environment, and may be required for the efficient utilization of biomass-derived sugars from other renewable feedstocks.

Industrial fuel ethanol yeasts contain adaptive copy number changes in genes involved in vitamin B1 and B6 biosynthesis

PubMed Central

Stambuk, Boris U.; Dunn, Barbara; Alves, Sergio L.; Duval, Eduarda H.; Sherlock, Gavin

2009-01-01

Fuel ethanol is now a global energy commodity that is competitive with gasoline. Using microarray-based comparative genome hybridization (aCGH), we have determined gene copy number variations (CNVs) common to five industrially important fuel ethanol Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains responsible for the production of billions of gallons of fuel ethanol per year from sugarcane. These strains have significant amplifications of the telomeric SNO and SNZ genes, which are involved in the biosynthesis of vitamins B6 (pyridoxine) and B1 (thiamin). We show that increased copy number of these genes confers the ability to grow more efficiently under the repressing effects of thiamin, especially in medium lacking pyridoxine and with high sugar concentrations. These genetic changes have likely been adaptive and selected for in the industrial environment, and may be required for the efficient utilization of biomass-derived sugars from other renewable feedstocks. PMID:19897511

Characteristics of High- and Low-Efficiency Hospitals.

PubMed

Rosko, Michael; Wong, Herbert S; Mutter, Ryan

2017-01-01

We compared performance, operating characteristics, and market environments of low- and high-efficiency hospitals in the 37 states that supplied inpatient data to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project from 2006 to 2010. Hospital cost-inefficiency estimates using stochastic frontier analysis were generated. Hospitals were then grouped into the 100 most- and 100 least-efficient hospitals for subsequent analysis. Compared with the least efficient hospitals, high-efficiency hospitals tended to have lower average costs, higher labor productivity, and higher profit margins. The most efficient hospitals tended to be nonteaching, investor-owned, and members of multihospital systems. Hospitals in the high-efficiency group were located in areas with lower health maintenance organization penetration and less competition, and they had a higher share of Medicaid and Medicare admissions. Results of the analysis suggest there are opportunities for public policies to support improved efficiency in the hospital sector.

Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine position statement: athletes at high altitude.

PubMed

Koehle, Michael S; Cheng, Ivy; Sporer, Benjamin

2014-03-01

Many sports incorporate training at altitude as a key component of their athlete training plan. Furthermore, many sports are required to compete at high altitude venues. Exercise at high altitude provides unique challenges to the athlete and to the sport medicine clinician working with these athletes. These challenges include altitude illness, alterations in training intensity and performance, nutritional and hydration difficulties, and challenges related to the austerity of the environment. Furthermore, many of the strategies that are typically utilized by visitors to altitude may have implications from an anti-doping point of view.This position statement was commissioned and approved by the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine. The purpose of this statement was to provide an evidence-based, best practices summary to assist clinicians with the preparation and management of athletes and individuals travelling to altitude for both competition and training.

Hunger-driven motivational state competition

PubMed Central

Burnett, C. Joseph; Li, Chia; Webber, Emily; Tsaousidou, Eva; Xue, Stephen Y.; Brüning, Jens C.; Krashes, Michael J.

2016-01-01

Summary Behavioral choice is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom and is central to goal-oriented behavior. Hypothalamic Agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons are critical regulators of appetite. Hungry animals, bombarded by multiple sensory stimuli, are known to modify their behavior during times of caloric need, rapidly adapting to a consistently changing environment. Utilizing ARCAgRP neurons as an entry point, we analyzed the hierarchical position of hunger related to rival drive states. Employing a battery of behavioral assays we found that hunger significantly increases its capacity to suppress competing motivational systems such as thirst, anxiety-related behavior, innate fear and social interactions often only when food is accessible. Furthermore, real-time monitoring of ARCAgRP activity revealed time-locked responses to conspecific investigation in addition to food presentation, further establishing that even at the level of ARCAgRP neurons choices are remarkably flexible computations integrating internal state, external factors and anticipated yield. PMID:27693254

A new bio-inspired, population-level approach to the socioeconomic evolution of dynamic spectrum access services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horvath, Denis; Gazda, Juraj; Brutovsky, Branislav

Evolutionary species and quasispecies models provide the universal and flexible basis for a large-scale description of the dynamics of evolutionary systems, which can be built conceived as a constraint satisfaction dynamics. It represents a general framework to design and study many novel, technologically contemporary models and their variants. Here, we apply the classical quasispecies concept to model the emerging dynamic spectrum access (DSA) markets. The theory describes the mechanisms of mimetic transfer, competitive interactions between socioeconomic strata of the end-users, their perception of the utility and inter-operator switching in the variable technological environments of the operators offering the wireless spectrum services. The algorithmization and numerical modeling demonstrate the long-term evolutionary socioeconomic changes which reflect the end-user preferences and results of the majorization of their irrational decisions in the same manner as the prevailing tendencies which are embodied in the efficient market hypothesis.

Understanding profitability: Why some customers are hot and others are not

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sioshansi, F.P.

Gone are the days when utilities would boast how many new customers were being added to their system annually-regardless of whether they were in fact profitable to serve or not-as if bigger was always better. In a not too distant future, and with the liberalization of the business environment, some utilities may no longer wish to serve certain customers on their systems, while at the same time aggressively wooing other customers. With the anticipated arrival of competition and erosion of utility franchise service areas, the electric power industry will gradually evolve into a mode where customers will be segmented intomore » finer groups and evaluated based on their expected profit margins-theoretically the difference between the revenues expected from them and the cost of serving them. Understanding this basic concept, and the mastery of the art of arriving at the correct profit margin for each market segment, will be essential to overall business profitability and survival in the future. In practice, however, many utilities are ill-prepared to accomplish such fundamental analyses correctly and consistently because they do not have the correct analytical framework, the right information, or the right tools to perform the analysis. This paper will outline the fundamentals of market segmentation and evaluating customer profitability. It will also illustrate how to balance the cost of serving a customer with the revenues derived to produce a {open_quotes}reasonable{close_quotes} profit margin in each market segment. EPRI has developed a software tool specifically designed to assist utility analysts perform this type of work. Other ongoing research in the area of profitability analysis is also described.« less

Robotic Mining Competition - Opening Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-15

NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana welcomes college and university teams to NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 15, during the opening ceremony in the RobotPits in the Educator Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

KSC-2011-4005

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-25

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin

KSC-2011-3956

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-24

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

KSC-2011-3955

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-24

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

KSC-2011-4151

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-27

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students make final preparations for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

KSC-2011-3954

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-24

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

KSC-2011-4006

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-25

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin

KSC-2011-4003

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-25

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin

KSC-2011-4016

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-26

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students make final preparations for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

KSC-2011-3957

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-24

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- University students prepare for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Robotic Mining Competition Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-26

Undergraduate and graduate students with teams that participated in NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition eat dinner in the Apollo-Saturn V Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, before the awards ceremony. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. used their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participated in other competition requirements, May 22-26 at the visitor complex. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition - Media Day

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-25

Lilliana Villareal, Spacecraft and Offline Operations manager in the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, is interviewed on-camera by Al Feinberg, with the Communications and Public Engagement Directorate, during NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. used their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participated in other competition requirements, May 22-26. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-26

Inside the Apollo-Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, Pat Simpkins, director of the Engineering Directorate at Kennedy Space Center, speaks to the teams during the award ceremony for NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. used their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participated in other competition requirements, May 22-26, at the visitor complex. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-26

Inside the Apollo-Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, Lisa May, with Murphian Systems, presents the Judges Innovation Award during the award ceremony for NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. used their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participated in other competition requirements, May 22-26, at the visitor complex. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition Awards Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-26

Kurt Leucht, a NASA engineer and event emcee, welcomes guests to the awards ceremony for NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition in the Apollo-Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. used their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participated in other competition requirements, May 22-26 at the visitor complex. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition - Media Day

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-05-25

Stan Starr, branch chief for Applied Physics in the Exploration Research and Technology Programs, is interviewed on-camera by Sarah McNulty, with the Communication and Public Engagement Directorate, during NASA's 8th Annual Robotic Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. used their uniquely-designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, and participated in other competition requirements, May 22-26. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's Journey to Mars.

Robotic Mining Competition - Opening Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-15

A flag presentation and singing of the National Anthem are part of the opening ceremony of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 15, in the RobotPits in the Educator Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their uniquely designed mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Setup

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-14

On the first day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, set-up day on May 14, team members from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities work on their robot miner in the RobotPits in the Educator Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Opening Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-15

On the second day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 15, the RoboPits in the Educatory Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida is filled with teams of students working on their uniquely designed robot miners. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Opening Ceremony

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-15

On the second day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 15, team members from the University of Tulsa work on their robot miner in the RobotPits in the Educator Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Setup

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-14

On the first day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, set-up day on May 14, team members from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology work on their robot miner in the RobotPits in the Educator Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Setup

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-14

On the first day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, set-up day on May 14, team members from Montana Tech of the University of Montana work on their robot miner in the RobotPits in the Educator Resource Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Martian soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

Robotic Mining Competition - Activities

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-17

Team members from York College CUNY make adjustments to their robot miner for its turn in the mining arena on the fourth day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 17, inside the RobotPits at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. are using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.