Smoke Screen

Relationship Atmosphere : Behind the smoke - screen

Supplier-Customer relationships, considered as veritable sites of investment by the marketing firm, evolve over time to condition the position of the firm in its market, providing its strategic identity. This evolution is strongly influenced by less tangible elements intrinsically linked to exchanges taking place over time : the relationship " atmosphere " , often discussed in the literature re...

A smoke screen theory of financial intermediation

This paper explores the role of diversification and size in protecting information. We present a simple two period credit market with a sophisticated lender faced with competitors who free ride on his screening activity. Absent commitment problems, the lender funds one borrower and exerts optimal evaluation. When borrowers cannot commit to a long term relationship, the free riding problem is re...

Exhaled nitric oxide in COPD: glancing through a smoke screen.

There is worldwide increasing awareness of the human and socioeconomic impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Even though its pathogenesis in industrialised countries is linked to a well known cause—namely, tobacco smoking—it is not envisaged that this knowledge will lead to breakthroughs in the prevention of this disease during...

Smoking bans in acute care psychiatric settings: a Machiavellian smoke screen?

Visual Screen: Transforming an Ordinary Screen into a Touch Screen

Touch screens are very convenient because one can directly point to where it is interesting. This paper presents an inexpensive technique to transform an ordinary screen into a touch screen using an ordinary camera. The setup is easy: position a camera so it can see the whole screen. The system calibration involves the detection of the screen region in the image. which determines the projective...