This paper analyses the impact of sanctions against Iran in addition to other country-specific determinants on intra-industry trade between Iran and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries over the period 1997-2013. By disentangling total intra-industry trade (IIT) into horizontal and vertical IIT and after investigating bilateral trade pattern between Iran and SCO countries, determin...

Motivated by an application in project portfolio analysis under uncertainty, we develop an algorithm S-VNS for solving stochastic combinatorial optimization (SCO) problems based on the Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) metaheuristic, and show its theoretical soundness by a mathematical convergence result. S-VNS is the first generalpurpose algorithm for SCO problems using VNS. It combines a cla...

We describe our method to find the primordial binary population in the Sco OB2 association. We present the results of our ADONIS and VLT/NACO near-infrared adaptive optics binarity surveys of A and late-B stars in Sco OB2. We combine these results with literature data on visual, spectroscopic, and astrometric binary stars. With our observations we remove part of the selection effects present in...

The isolated neutron star RX J185635-3754 is the closest known neutron star to the Sun. Based on HST WFPC2 obervations over a 3 year baseline, I report its proper motion (332±1 mas yr at a position angle of 100.3±0.1) and parallax (16.5±2.3 mas; 61 pc). This proper motion brings the neutron star from the general vicinity of the Sco-Cen OB association. For an assumed neutron star radial velocity...

Small cell osteosarcoma (SCO) is the most rare subtype of osteosarcoma and has a poor prognosis. An 11-year-old boy presented with 2-month history of painful tumefaction in the lower leg. Imaging analysis demonstrated a mixture of osteolytic and osteosclerotic lesions in the proximal tibia and extraskeletal area. Histology of the open biopsy showed small round cells producing mucous matrix. Bas...

In the Bluetooth system, isochronous applications, such as voice and audio, are carried by Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) links. SCO packets are regularly scheduled every two, four, or six time slots and enjoy preemptive priority over data-bearing Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) packets. The residual bandwidth available to simultaneous data services is often insufficient for many type...