Electronic bill presentment and payment--is it just a click away?

This article addresses the following questions about electronic presentment and payment (EBPP) in the business-to-consumer marketplace: Why aren't electronically presented bills always paid electronically? And, if EBPP does aid in the migration to fully electronic end-to-end payment, what are the barriers to its adoption.Payment systems ; Electronic funds transfers

Lifestyle changes in descendants of parents with diabetes type 2

O objetivo geral do estudo foi explorar à disposição à mudança dos padrões alimentares e atividade física nos descendentes de progenitores com diabetes mellitus tipo 2 (DMT2). Aplicou-se un desenho descritivo correlacionar. A base teórica constituiu-se pelo Componente Genético (h²) e o Modelo Transteorético de Prochaska. Participaram 30 progenitores com DMT2 e 60 descendentes. Resultados e Conclusões: O 68% dos descendentes presentaram obesidade, 60% com risco de doença cardiovascular, 42% com resistência à insulina (RI) e 15% intolerância à glucose; nenhum dos fatores de risco associaram-se com as etapas de mudança. O componente genético para RI foi mínimo (h² = 1.37%). Uma maior proporcão dos menores de 40 anos (Xi² = 6.04, p = .020) e das mulheres (Xi² = 4.41, p=.040) contemplam diminuir o consumo de gorduras. Os resultados sugerem um maior peso dos fatores do meio ambiente sobre o estilo de vida nocivo dos participantes.El objetivo general del estudio fue explorar la disposición al cambio de patrones alimentarios y actividad física en descendientes de progenitores con diabetes mellitus tipo 2 (DMT2), aplicando un diseño descriptivo correlacional. La base teórica la constituyó el componente genético heredabilidad (h²) y el Modelo Transteorético de Prochaska; participaron 30 progenitores con DMT2 y 60 descendientes. Resultados y Conclusión: El 68% de los descendientes fueron obesos, 60% con riesgo de enfermedad cardiovascular, 42% con resistencia a la insulina (RI) y 15% intolerantes a la glucosa; ninguno de los factores de riesgo se asoció con las etapas de cambio. El componente genético para RI fue mínimo (h² = 1.37%). Una mayor proporción de menores de 40 años (p = .020) y de mujeres "contemplan" disminuir el consumo de grasas (p = .040). Estos resultados sugieren un mayor peso de factores del medio ambiente sobre el estilo de vida nocivo de los participantes.This study aimed to explore the disposition of diabetic parents' descendents in changing eating and physical activity patterns. It was based on the heritability concept and Prochaska's Transtheoretical Model. This is a descriptive-correlational study; participants included 30 parents, randomly selected, and 60 children. Results and conclusion: 68% of the children was classified as obese, 42% with insulin resistance, and 15% with carbohydrate intolerance. None of the risk factors was associated with the stages of change. The heritability factor was 1.37%; more people younger than 40 and women report decreasing in the consumption of fat food (Xi² = 6.04, p = .020; and 4.41, p = .040, respectively). These results suggest a high influence of environmental factors on the participants' unhealthy life styles

A Nexafs Study of Nitric Oxide Layers Adsorbed from a nitrite Solution onto a Pt(111) Surface

NO molecules adsorbed on a Pt(111) surface from dipping in an acidic nitrite solution are studied by near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) techniques. LEED patterns and STM images show that no long range ordered structures are formed after NO adsorption on a Pt(111) surface. Although the total NO coverage is very low, spectroscopic features in N K-edge and O K-edge absorption spectra have been singled out and related to the different species induced by this preparation method. From these measurements it is concluded that the NO molecule is adsorbed trough the N atom in an upright conformation. The maximum saturation coverage is about 0.3 monolayers, and although nitric oxide is the major component, nitrite and nitrogen species are slightly co-adsorbed on the surface. The results obtained from this study are compared with those previously reported in the literature for NO adsorbed on Pt(111) under UHV conditions

Characterization of Polyphosphoesters by Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry

FT-ICR mass spectrometry, together with collision-induced dissociation and electron capture dissociation, has been used to characterize the polyphosphoester poly[1,4-bis(hydroxyethyl)terephthalate-alt-ethyloxyphosphate] and its degradation products. Three degradation pathways were elucidated: hydrolysis of the phosphate–[1,4-bis(hydroxyethyl)terephthalate]bonds; hydrolysis of the phosphate–ethoxy bonds; and hydrolysis of the ethyl–terephthalate bonds. The dominant degradation reactions were those that involved the phosphate groups. This work constitutes the first application of mass spectrometry to the characterization of polyphosphoesters and demonstrates the suitability of high mass accuracy FT-ICR mass spectrometry, with CID and ECD, for the structural analysis of polyphosphoesters and their degradation products

Limitations on the smooth confinement of an unstretchable manifold

We prove that an m-dimensional unit ball D^m in the Euclidean space {\mathbb R}^m cannot be isometrically embedded into a higher-dimensional Euclidean ball B_r^d \subset {\mathbb R}^d of radius r < 1/2 unless one of two conditions is met -- (1)The embedding manifold has dimension d >= 2m. (2) The embedding is not smooth. The proof uses differential geometry to show that if d<2m and the embedding is smooth and isometric, we can construct a line from the center of D^m to the boundary that is geodesic in both D^m and in the embedding manifold {\mathbb R}^d. Since such a line has length 1, the diameter of the embedding ball must exceed 1.Comment: 20 Pages, 3 Figure

Extended Huckel theory for bandstructure, chemistry, and transport. II. Silicon

In this second paper, we develop transferable semi-empirical parameters for the technologically important material, silicon, using Extended Huckel Theory (EHT) to calculate its electronic structure. The EHT-parameters areoptimized to experimental target values of the band dispersion of bulk-silicon. We obtain a very good quantitative match to the bandstructure characteristics such as bandedges and effective masses, which are competitive with the values obtained within an $sp^3 d^5 s^*$ orthogonal-tight binding model for silicon. The transferability of the parameters is investigated applying them to different physical and chemical environments by calculating the bandstructure of two reconstructed surfaces with different orientations: Si(100) (2x1) and Si(111) (2x1). The reproduced $\pi$- and $\pi^*$-surface bands agree in part quantitatively with DFT-GW calculations and PES/IPES experiments demonstrating their robustness to environmental changes. We further apply the silicon parameters to describe the 1D band dispersion of a unrelaxed rectangular silicon nanowire (SiNW) and demonstrate the EHT-approach of surface passivation using hydrogen. Our EHT-parameters thus provide a quantitative model of bulk-silicon and silicon-based materials such as contacts and surfaces, which are essential ingredients towards a quantitative quantum transport simulation through silicon-based heterostructures.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Faraday waves on a viscoelastic liquid

We investigate Faraday waves on a viscoelastic liquid. Onset measurements and a nonlinear phase diagram for the selected patterns are presented. By virtue of the elasticity of the material a surface resonance synchronous to the external drive competes with the usual subharmonic Faraday instability. Close to the bicriticality the nonlinear wave interaction gives rise to a variety of novel surface states: Localised patches of hexagons, hexagonal superlattices, coexistence of hexagons and lines. Theoretical stability calculations and qualitative resonance arguments support the experimental observations.Comment: 4 pages, 4figure

Crumpling a Thin Sheet

Crumpled sheets have a surprisingly large resistance to further compression. We have studied the crumpling of thin sheets of Mylar under different loading conditions. When placed under a fixed compressive force, the size of a crumpled material decreases logarithmically in time for periods up to three weeks. We also find hysteretic behavior when measuring the compression as a function of applied force. By using a pre-treating protocol, we control this hysteresis and find reproducible scaling behavior for the size of the crumpled material as a function of the applied force.Comment: revtex 4 pages, 6 eps figures submitted to Phys Rev. let

Continuum-type stability balloon in oscillated granular layers

The stability of convection rolls in a fluid heated from below is limited by secondary instabilities, including the skew-varicose and crossroll instabilities. We observe a stability boundary defined by the same instabilities in stripe patterns in a vertically oscillated granular layer. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the mechanism of the skew-varicose instability in granular patterns is similar to that in convection. These results suggest that pattern formation in granular media can be described by continuum models analogous to those used in fluid systems.Comment: 4 pages, 6 ps figs, submitted to PR