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"Rankin, John"
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The IXPE View of Neutron Star Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
Low-mass X-ray binaries hosting weakly magnetized neutron stars (NS-LMXBs) are among the brightest sources in the X-ray sky. Since 2021, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) has provided new measurements of the X-ray polarization of these sources. IXPE observations have revealed that most NS-LMXBs are significantly polarized in the X-rays, providing unprecedented insight into the geometry of their accretion flow. In this review paper, we summarize the first results obtained by IXPE on NS-LMXBs, the emerging trends within each class of sources (atoll/Z), and possible physical interpretations.
Journal Article
The DaimlerChrysler takeover failure revisited from a varieties-of-capitalism perspective
Purpose>The purpose of this paper is to revisit the disastrous DaimlerChrysler AG takeover episode from 1998 to 2007 in order to arrive at a more comprehensive explanation of this and other merger and takeover failures based on institutional theory.Design/methodology/approach>The case study is based on various secondary sources of information and on the insights that one of the authors gained from working for 14 years in various positions for Daimler-Benz and DaimlerChrysler.Findings>DaimlerChrysler failed because top management made mistakes in trying to globalize the company. They were unable to realize possible synergies between the two companies, which brought complementary resources into the merger. Furthermore, they did not account for the institutional embeddedness of strategies when they adopted lean production globally, diffused the production system developed in Germany to other parts of the world and tried to implement a global stock enlisted in New York and Frankfurt. The underlying theoretical framework is relevant for other merger and acquisition cases. It features institutional embeddedness, path dependency and institutional arbitrage.Originality/value>The paper develops an institutional perspective on DaimlerChrysler and on cross-border merger and acquisition failure more generally. The perspective is organized around the varieties-of-capitalism approach. This contribution is important because there is increasing dissatisfaction with the dominant explanation of cross-border merger and acquisition failure, which is based on the allegedly failed management of culture “clashes.”
Journal Article
Testing Metaphorical Educational FPS Games
It is widely recognized that there is value in making use of modern Games Technology in Serious Games for educational purposes in the classroom and yet tools that enable teachers to construct such Educational Serious Games (ESGs) with minimal programming, artistic, or GT skills are not yet widely available. In this paper we investigate the feasibility of employing the FPS game genre for teaching purposes in the classroom. This is done by starting with a typical FPS game and constructing metaphorical correspondences with the desired ESG category. This mapping highlights the mentality level of FPS games and what it would take to modify them towards the level for real knowledge acquisition as in ESGs. By changing the game world rules to correspond with a classroom study area, we create a metaphorical educational FPS game. In this paper we describe two metaphorical educational FPS games and report on preliminary testing of their use in education. If testing of these metaphorical educational FPS games indicates that they would be beneficial in school classes then we intend to pursue the design of software tools and tutorials to enable teachers to develop their own metaphorical educational FPS games in two months or less.
Journal Article
Interleukin-4 Alters Epithelial Cell Differentiation and Surfactant Homeostasis in the Postnatal Mouse Lung
Interleukin-4 (IL-4) is a pleotrophic cytokine which is increased during lung injury and inflammation. Epithelial cell morphology and surfactant homeostasis were assessed in 4-52-wk-old transgenic mice in which IL-4 was expressed in the bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells under the control of the Clara cell secretory protein promoter (CCSP-IL-4 mice). IL-4 caused progressive pulmonary infiltration with macrophages, lymphocytes, neutrophils, and eosinophils. Epithelial cell hypertrophy and mucus cell metaplasia were observed in the lungs of CCSP-IL-4 mice at all ages. Airway epithelial cells contained increased neutral glycoproteins and expressed gastric mucin, normally absent in the bronchiolar epithelium of the mouse. Immunohistochemical and biochemical studies demonstrated increased surfactant proteins A and B in lung sections and lung homogenates of CCSP-IL-4 transgenic mice. Increased immunostaining for surfactant proprotein C was also detected in type II epithelial cells of the transgenic mice. In contrast, surfactant protein B and CCSP expression was decreased or was absent in hypertrophic epithelial cells lining the conducting airways of transgenic mice. Lung-specific increase in T-cell proliferative responses to mitogenic stimulation and antibody secretion were detected in CCSP-IL-4 mice. Differentiated characteristics of respiratory epithelial cells were dramatically influenced by the chronic production of IL-4 in the conducting airways. Alterations in lung morphology in the CCSP-IL-4 mice are similar to some of those induced by antigenic stimulation or associated with chronic airway inflammation.
Journal Article
Godzilla in the corridor: The Ontario SARS crisis in historical perspective
Ontario nurses were employed as the front-line workers when SARS descended upon Toronto in March 2003. Once the crisis had subsided, many nurses remarked that SARS had forever altered their chosen profession; employment, which they once viewed as relatively safe, had been transformed into potentially life-threatening. This discussion provides descriptions of these expressions through nurses who experienced the crisis and chose to go on the public record. Secondly, it compares the subjective perceptions of those nurses to those held by nurses who worked through historical epidemics of unknown or contested epidemiology. The historical literature on nursing in yellow fever, cholera and influenza epidemics has been employed to offer insight. The goal is to determine whether the SARS outbreak was a unique experience for nurses or whether similar experiences were shared by nurses in the past? In summary, the reactions of nurses when confronted with the possibility of contracting a deadly disease remain altogether human, not dissimilar in past or present. Nurses’ responses to SARS can be usefully studied within a larger historical vision of crisis nursing, and information or impressions from earlier crises are potentially of interest to the nursing profession.
Journal Article
High-Density Pixel Imaging Sensor Readout Electronics for Space Applications: A Design Overview
With the specialization of VLSI ASICs for front-end signal processing electronics, the customization of the control back-end electronics (BEE) has become critical to fully deploy the ASIC performance. In the context of space operations, with typical constraints on power and reliability, the design and qualification of such integrated systems present significant challenges. In this paper, we review the design and performance of the BEE systems after two years of operations in low Earth orbit (LEO); these systems read out the custom ASICs inside the gas pixel detectors, which are located at the heart of the imaging X-ray polarimetry explorer (IXPE), a NASA-ASI small explorer mission designed to measure X-ray polarization in the 2–8 keV energy range.
Journal Article