An Explanation of the High Rates of Discrepancies in Letter of Credit Transactions: the “Bilateral Assurance” Mechanism

The high rate of discrepancies in letter of credit transactions, and the waiver of the overwhelming majority of these discrepancies by applicants, reveal that buyers and sellers are not benefiting from their primary advantage—legal enforceability. Two hypotheses are proposed in this thesis to provide a tentative explanation for the phenomena under consideration. First, letters of credit are an “assured-payment” mechanism—so long as the beneficiary submits conforming documents, it is legally entitled to payment. Second, letters of credit provide the beneficiary with a “verification” service—they assure that the applicant is financially solvent. Qualitative and quantitative researches are employed as the methodological approaches. Specifically, descriptive research is employed to investigate the underlying theories regarding letters of credit. Empirical data is utilized to demonstrate both the high-rate of discrepancies and the most common discrepanciesinletterofcredittransactions. Thefindingsrevealthatboththe“assured- payment” and “verification” theories fail to address why sophisticated commercial parties pay substantial fees for the issuance of letters of credit and then choose not to take advantage of its legal enforceability. Accordingly, both hypotheses are rejected. In conclusion, an alternative hypothesis is developed in this thesis which adopts the “bilateral assurance” mechanism to address the research question posed. This theory emphasizes informational signaling within the context of international business transactions. Specifically, the preparation of the bill of lading, commercial invoice, insurance certificate, packing list, and country of origin are viewed as concrete actions by which the commercial parties can modify their behavior and legally enforce their rights

Simulation of Electromagnetic Coupling on Pipelines close to Overhead Transmission Lines: A Parametric Study

Electromagnetic interference effects caused by electric power lines on neighboring metallic utilities such as water, gas or oil pipelines became a major concern due to significant increase in the load and short circuit current levels needed to satisfy the load requirements. Another reason for increased interference levels originates from the environmental concerns, which impose on various utilities the obligation to share common corridors. This paper presents three different scenarios of a pipeline in which all types of electromagnetic interferences (coupling) will be investigated and their effects on the pipeline will be predicted. The level of the calculated voltage, owing to each type of coupling, depends on different factors (voltage level, length of parallelism, separation distance, soil resistivity, load current magnitude and pipeline coating). The effects of these factors are discussed; some factors such as the fault current level, separation distance and soil resistivities are found to exhibit a large influence on the pipeline voltage. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the comprehensive analyses presented in this paper considering all types of interferences have not yet been published elsewhere

A Novel ??-Negative Metamaterial with Enhanced Rejection Bandwidth

Published by and copyright of Science Publications. The definitive version of this article is available at: http://thescipub.com/abstract/10.3844/ajeassp.2013.137.144In this study, a novel planar ??-Negative (MNG) metamaterial structure based on Split Ring Resonators\ud (SRRs) with improved rejection bandwidth is presented. A bridging technique is used to connect two SRR\ud unit cells at the center to emulate a cascaded filter. The proposed structure achieved a -20 dB rejection\ud bandwidth of 15.5% compared to 4.5% for the conventional SRRs which makes it a good candidate for\ud integration with antennas and RF circuits that require large operational bandwidth

Decoupled and Descattered Monopole MIMO Antenna Array with Orthogonal Radiation Patterns

This chapter introduces a novel design concept to reduce mutual coupling among closely-spaced antenna elements of a MIMO array. This design concept significantly reduces the complexity of traditional/existing design approaches such as metamaterials, defected ground plane structures, soft electromagnetic surfaces, parasitic elements, matching and decoupling networks using a simple, yet a novel design alternative. The approach is based on a planar single decoupling element, consisting of a rectangular metallic ring resonator printed on one face of an ungrounded substrate. The decoupling structure surrounds a two-element vertical monopole antenna array fed by a coplanar waveguide structure. The design is shown both by simulations and measurements to reduce the mutual coupling by at least 20 dB, maintain the impedance bandwidth over which S11, is less than −10 dB, and reduce the envelope correlation coefficient to below 0.001. The boresight of the far-field radiation patterns of the two vertical monopole wire antennas operating at 2.4 GHz and separated by 8 mm (λo/16), where λo is the free-space wavelength at 2.45 GHz, is shown to be orthogonal and inclined by 45° with respect to the horizontal (azimuthal) plane while maintaining the shape of the isolated single antenna element

Nutraceuticals in the Management of Dyslipidemia: Which, When, and for Whom? Could Nutraceuticals Help Low-Risk Individuals with Non-optimal Lipid Levels?

Purpose of review: The aim of this review is to summarize the available clinical efficacy and safety data related to the most studied and used lipid-lowering nutraceuticals. Recent findings: A growing number of meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials supports the effectiveness and tolerability of some lipid-lowering nutraceuticals such as red yeast rice, plant sterols and stanols, soluble fibers, berberine, artichoke extracts, bergamot polyphenol fraction, garlic, green tea, and spiruline. No significant safety concern has been raised for the use of such products. Association of more lipid-lowering nutraceuticals and of some nutraceuticals with lipid-lowering drugs has been tested as well. Current evidence suggests that some clinically tested lipid-lowering nutraceuticals could be safely used to improve plasma lipid levels in subjects affected by mild-to-moderate dyslipidaemia with low cardiovascular risk

Long-term outcome after a treosulfan-based conditioning regimen for patients with acute myeloid leukemia: A report from the Acute Leukemia Working Party of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation

BACKGROUND: Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is a curative therapy for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, post-HCT relapse and regimen-related toxicity remain significant barriers to long-term survival. In recent years, new conditioning regimens have been explored to improve transplantation outcomes in patients with AML. Treosulfan combines a potent immunosuppressive and antileukemic effect with a low toxicity profile. METHODS: To investigate the role of treosulfan-based conditioning, the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Acute Leukemia Working Party performed a registry analysis of 520 adult patients with AML who received treosulfan-based conditioning and underwent HCT between 2000 and 2012, including 225 patients in first complete remission, 107 in second or later complete remission, and 188 with active/advanced disease 188 (88 with primary refractory disease). The median patient age was 57 years (range, 20-73 years). Donors were human leukocyte antigen-identical siblings (n = 187), unrelated donors (n = 235), or mismatched related donors (n = 98). Conditioning regimens included treosulfan (42 g/m2 [n = 396], 36 g/m2 [n = 109], or 30 g/ m2 [n = 15]) with fludarabine or alkylating agents followed by infusion of hematopoietic stem cells (bone marrow, n = 52; peripheral blood, n = 468). RESULTS: At a median follow-up of 61 months, the 5-year overall survival, leukemia-free survival, relapse incidence, and nonrelapse mortality rates were 38%, 33%, 42%, and 25%, respectively. The incidence of grade II-IV acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease was 24% (grade III-V, 11%) and 38%, respectively. Only 11 patients (2%) developed veno-occlusive disease, with two deaths (0.4%) from veno-occlusive disease. CONCLUSIONS: Treosulfan-based conditioning regimens provide an acceptable long-term survival with favorable nonrelapse mortality and a very low risk of veno-occlusive disease. Further studies are needed to optimize the treosulfan-based conditioning regimen for patients with AML