Meeting Radical Change and Regional Transition: Regional Closedowns and the Role of Entrepreneurship

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the effects of radical changes within regions by providing an empirical base from 12 Swedish municipalities from different regions. The specific focus of the paper is the role of entrepreneurship, both as an opportunity-seeking activity in order to find and develop new business undertakings, as well as entrepreneurship as a perspective for supporting activities in the public or private spheres. The results are based on interviews and surveys, secondary data, information from regional governments, municipal websites and also from other public information channels. Two questions were raised in analysing the case: (1) What types of contextual factors are of strategic importance when regions are challenged by radical change, and what role do these factors have in a regional restructuring and development process? (2) What types of policy and support measures are productive for entrepreneurial activities in regions when adaptation to radical change is required? The results presented by the study provide insight into how the development of local economies is affected when conditions change in a region due to the closure of a major public workplace. The paper also tries to present opportunities through which municipalities are able to prepare for and take action to help entrepreneurial activity face ongoing structural change and a globalized local economy.radical change, regional transition, entrepreneurship, restructure, strategies, closedowns

On the electromagnetic force on a polarizable body

The force on a macroscopic polarizable body in an inhomogenous electromagnetic field is calculated for three simple exactly solvable situations. Comparing different approaches we pinpoint possible pitfalls and resolve recent confusion about the force density in ferrofluids.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Am. J. Phy

Deficiency of immunity to poliovirus type 3: a lurking danger?

Background: Europe was certified to be polio-free in 2002 by the WHO. However, wild polioviruses remain endemic in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, occasionally causing polio outbreaks, as in Tajikistan in 2010. Therefore, effective surveillance measures and vaccination campaigns remain important. To determine the poliovirus immune status of a German study population, we retrospectively evaluated the seroprevalence of neutralizing antibodies (NA) to the poliovirus types 1, 2 and 3 (PV1, 2, 3) in serum samples collected from 1,632 patients admitted the University Hospital of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 2001, 2005 and 2010. Methods: Testing was done by using a standardized microneutralization assay. Results: Level of immunity to PV1 ranged between 84.2% (95%CI: 80.3-87.5), 90.4% (88.3-92.3) and 87.5% (85.4-88.8) in 2001, 2005 and 2010. For PV2, we found 90.8% (87.5-90.6), 91.3% (89.3-93.1) and 89.8% (88.7-90.9), in the same period. Seroprevalence to PV3 was 76.6% (72.2-80.6), 69.8% (66.6-72.8) and 72.9% (67.8-77.5) in 2001 and 2005 and 2010, respectively. In 2005 and 2010 significant lower levels of immunity to PV3 in comparison to PV1 and 2 were observed. Since 2001, immunity to PV3 is gradually, but not significantly decreasing. Conclusion: Immunity to PV3 is insufficient in our cohort. Due to increasing globalization and worldwide tourism, the danger of polio-outbreaks is not averted - even not in developed countries, such as Germany. Therefore, vaccination remains necessary

The Bunsen gas solubility coefficient of ethylene as a function of temperature and salinity and its importance for nitrogen fixation assays

The acetylene reduction assay is a common method for assessing nitrogen fixation in a variety of marine and freshwater systems. The method measures ethylene, the product of the conversion of the gas acetylene to its reduced form by nitrogenase. Knowledge of the solubility of ethylene in aqueous solution is crucial to the calculation of nitrogen fixation rates and depends on the temperature and salinity of the assay conditions. Despite the increasing interest in marine nitrogen fixation, no gas solubility (Bunsen) coefficients for ethylene in seawater are published to date. Here, we provide a set of equations and present semiempirically derived Bunsen coefficients for ethylene in water (ranging from 0.069 to 0.226) for a range of temperatures and salinities that are relevant for aquatic nitrogen fixation. We apply these data to nitrogen fixation scenarios at different temperatures and salinities and stress the importance of using accurate Bunsen coefficients in nitrogen fixation assays

Role of Li_2B_(12)H_(12) for the Formation and Decomposition of LiBH_4

By in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the role of Li_2B_(12)H_(12) for the sorption of LiBH_4 is analyzed. We demonstrate that Li_2B_(12)H_(12) and an amorphous Li_2B_(10)H_(10) phase are formed by the reaction of LiBH_4 with diborane (B_2H_6) at 200 °C. Based on our present results, we propose that the Li -2B - (12)H_(12) formation in the desorption of LiBH_4 can be explained as a result of reaction of diborane and LiBH_4. This reaction of the borohydride with diborane may also be observed for other borohydrides, where B_(12)H_(12) phases are found during decomposition

Complexity of the General Chromatic Art Gallery Problem

In the original Art Gallery Problem (AGP), one seeks the minimum number of guards required to cover a polygon $P$. We consider the Chromatic AGP (CAGP), where the guards are colored. As long as $P$ is completely covered, the number of guards does not matter, but guards with overlapping visibility regions must have different colors. This problem has applications in landmark-based mobile robot navigation: Guards are landmarks, which have to be distinguishable (hence the colors), and are used to encode motion primitives, \eg, "move towards the red landmark". Let $\chi_G(P)$, the chromatic number of $P$, denote the minimum number of colors required to color any guard cover of $P$. We show that determining, whether $\chi_G(P) \leq k$ is \NP-hard for all $k \geq 2$. Keeping the number of colors minimal is of great interest for robot navigation, because less types of landmarks lead to cheaper and more reliable recognition