From the Periphery to Center Stage: The Effects and Exploitation of the Other in Titus Andronicus and Assassin’s Creed III

Aaron the Moor from Titus Andronicus and Ratonhnhaké:ton from Assassin’s Creed III are each aiding in a war against an international superpower, and both characters are plotting ways to advance and improve their respective culture. Aaron is seen as the villain and the antagonist, whereas Ratonhnhaké:ton is seen as an individual who fights for freedom. However, once both characters’ usefulness is exhausted, they are easily characterized as the Other and lose whatever benefits they may have earned. They are tossed aside by the factions they are trying to help. Even though Assassin’s Creed III is a video game, the same issues of colonialism and imperialism can be investigated in this 21st-century genre as in Shakespeare’s play.     

Determinants of Sleep Duration Among High School Students in Part‐Time Employment

Adolescents who work while attending school are reported to sleep less than those who do not. This study aimed to identify factors associated with short sleep duration in students who work during the school year. A cross‐sectional survey aiming to describe working conditions and occupational safety and health was completed by representative samples of Quebec high school students aged 12–19 years from three administrative regions (n = 3,871). A multiple stepwise regression analysis was performed with sleep duration as the dependent variable, and sociodemographic, school, occupational, and health factors as potential explanatory variables. Significant factors associated with shorter sleep duration were later bedtimes (p < .001), shorter weekend oversleep (p < .001), higher physical work factors related to handling efforts (p < .001), and female gender (p < .01). Addressing work conditions of student workers may help prevent sleep deprivation. Special efforts should also target girls combining work and study.     

Can antitrust law enforcement spur innovation? Antitrust regulation of patent consolidation and its impact on follow-on innovations

This study examines the effect of antitrust regulation of patent consolidation on the development of follow-on innovations. Our reconciliation of the various strains of literature hypothesizes that in sectors where cumulative innovation is crucial to firms’ market operations, a firm that consolidates patents for substituting technologies for its already-possessed technologies discourages market competitions and follow-on innovation by competitors. In this case, antitrust regulation of patent consolidation is anticipated to positively affect competitors’ follow-on innovation. We empirically test this hypothesis with the case of the US Department of Justice's regulation of Novell's software patent transfers to four large proprietary software companies (i.e., Microsoft, Oracle, EMC, and Apple) in 2011. Our analyses using US patent, trademark, and copyright data have found evidence corroborating our hypothesis. Our research provides policy and scholarly implications regarding how antitrust law can be a complementary institution to the patent law for promoting innovation.     

中国未来原油进口的多元化分析

本文从降低供应风险的角度,对2020年前我国原油进口结构的优化路径进行了定量分析。并且为应对伊朗原油出口的减少提出了数量化的政策建议。研究结论显示,由于我国对世界原油的需求将会持续旺盛,在未来几年内,我国需要大量增加从俄罗斯、科威特、阿联酋、卡塔尔、墨西哥及阿尔及利亚等传统产油国的进口,同时减少对沙特阿拉伯、安哥拉、苏丹和伊朗的原油依赖。从未来原油进口的地区分布上看,中东地区依然是我国原油进口的主要来源地,同时也是供应风险最大的地区。为应对伊朗石油禁运,我国应该增加从加拿大、墨西哥、尼日利亚和卡塔尔等国的原油进口来弥补供应缺口,并满足国内快速增长的原油消费需求。     

Manipulating particle trajectories with phase-control in surface acoustic wave microfluidics

We present a 91 MHz surface acoustic wave resonator with integrated microfluidics that includes a flow focus, an expansion region, and a binning region in order to manipulate particle trajectories. We demonstrate the ability to change the position of the acoustic nodes by varying the electronic phase of one of the transducers relative to the other in a pseudo-static manner. The measurements were performed at room temperature with 3 μm diameter latex beads dispersed in a water-based solution. We demonstrate the dependence of nodal position on pseudo-static phase and show simultaneous control of 9 bead streams with spatial control of −0.058 μm/deg ± 0.001 μm/deg. As a consequence of changing the position of bead streams perpendicular to their flow direction, we also show that the integrated acoustic-microfluidic device can be used to change the trajectory of a bead stream towards a selected bin with an angular control of 0.008 deg/deg ± 0.000(2) deg/deg.     

New product introduction and product tenure: What effects on firm growth?

This study contributes to the recent empirical literature on the innovation-firm performance relationship by investigating the effect of product introduction on firm growth in a sample of Italian firms from 2000 to 2006. We adopted a novel approach that exploits the interpretative content of the tenure of the last product introduced (i.e., the number of years since its first introduction) as an additional variable into the explanatory scheme of firm sales growth rate. This variable aims to capture peculiar characteristics of new goods, such as their novelty and complexity. The estimated results confirmed the relevance of this model specification and helps in understanding the reason why previous studies have failed to find a statistically robust relationship between product innovation and growth. Moreover, we found the following: first, the release of a new product enhances growth opportunity among multiproduct firms; second, product development promotes the growth of firms belonging to sectors with stronger commitment to research and development; and third, new product development enhances firm growth substantially in those sectors that absorb externally originated patents.     

Microtextural and microchemical studies of hydraulic ancient mortars: Two analytical approaches to understand pre-industrial technology processes

Two different analytical approaches have been taken into account to investigate the role of Si-rich phases in enhance hydraulic reactions of bedding mortar mixtures from San Lorenzo Church in Milan (Northern Italy) and from the Medicean Aqueduct in Pisa (Central Italy). In the first case, mortars show clear hydraulic type reactions in the form of coronal layers between the reacting additive and the binder mass. In the second one, the hydraulic reactions do not develop visible mineral phases and processes have been inferred from chemical, mineralogical analyses and mass balance calculation. The microstructural studies not always are sufficient to understand the complex dynamics of reaction attained during pre-industrial manufacturing processing of mortars and related binders. In fact, if the reacting raw materials are fine-grained and/or have remarkable chemical reactivity, no relicts are preserved by mortar microtextures.     

Secondary students’ modelling conceptualisation in situations related to particle dynamics: a clinical perspective

This study investigates the modelling conceptualisation of secondary school students in two situations related to particle dynamics: pendulum’s motion and horizontal motion. We performed in-depth clinical interviews with secondary school students (N?=?10). Participants’ ideas about properties which are not ‘given’ in empirical observations were explored in order to investigate signs of abstractions and idealisations in their reasoning processes. We proposed contributions to modelling in science education based on Mario Bunge’s epistemology and we employed his basic concepts as the axis to analyse our results: (1) abstractions and idealisations, considered as thought processes required to build conceptual counterparts of concrete objects; (2) theoretical models, meaning hypothetico-deductive systems concerning those conceptual objects; and (3) general theoretical frameworks that allow us to derive those theoretical models. We developed our analysis viewing the ideas presented by participants as concepts-in-action and theorems-in-action as regarded by Gérard Vergnaud’s Theory of Conceptual Fields. Results indicated a gradation in the concepts-in-action mobilised in terms of levels of idealisation and showed that participants do not spontaneously recognise the use of a general theory as a possible way to obtain a theoretical model. These results suggest that science education practices must pay better attention to make abstractions and idealisations explicit in scientific concepts formation, as well as to the heuristic role of theories in model construction.