No Man Is An Island In Defense Procurement: Developments In EU Defense Procurement Regulation And Its Implications For The U.S.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union have focused minds on the EU’s role as a defense actor. In the context of defense procurement, this includes whether the EU should itself co-fund cooperative programmes with Member States (through the European Defense Fund, for example, and Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) initiatives among Member States), what can be commonly procured (and what cannot, e.g., due to prohibitions against offsets), and how (for example, under the competing constraints of Article 346 of the Treaty on Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the 2009 European Defense Directive). The United States faces the obvious dilemma of needing to be seen to encourage EU initiatives which, if successful, would reduce reliance on the United States within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) while also securing U.S. industry’s continued access to the European defence market(s), for example through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and under the reciprocal defense procurement agreements which open transatlantic defense markets. In the hope of advancing transatlantic cooperation in the broader procurement law community, this piece explores the latest EU initiatives in defense and security, with a particular emphasis on implications for the United States

Synthesis of toxyloxanthone B

A synthesis of the naturally occurring xanthone toxyloxanthone B is described, in which the key step is the regioselective addition of a methyl salicylate to a substituted benzyne followed by cyclization of the intermediate aryl anion to form the xanthone, the regiochemistry of the aryne addition being confirmed by X-ray crystallography. Subsequent introduction of the pyran ring by [3,3]-rearrangement and deprotection completed the synthesi

Mathematics in Home Economics Skills Acquisition for Socio-Economic Transformation in Nigeria: Implications for Extension Delivery.

Mathematics is said to be the life wire or mother of science and technology; and other disciplines. It contributes immensely in deciding directions of activities in all areas of human endeavours such as economy and training etc. At present, Nigeria is experiencing series of economic quagmire of which skills-oriented programme such as home economics skills acquisition could help tackle. On this premise, the paper focuses on the concepts of mathematics, skills acquisition in home economics, socio-economic transformation, philosophy and objectives of home economics as well as contributions of mathematics to the acquisition of some home economics skills. Implications for extension are also x-rayed. To realize the desired socio-economic transformation of the country, it has been suggested that both skilled and unskilled business operators in home economics should be assisted to enhance their production level to enable them employ other Nigerian citizens through a well-funded extension programme. Keywords: Mathematics, Home Economics, Skills, Transformation, Extension. DOI: 10.7176/MTM/9-8-04 Publication date: August 31st 2019

The hookworm Ancylostoma ceylanicum: an emerging public health risk in Australian tropical rainforests and Indigenous communities

Ancylostoma ceylanicum is the common hookworm of domestic dogs and cats throughout Asia, and is an emerging but little understood public health risk in tropical northern Australia. We investigated the prevalence of A. ceylanicum in soil and free-ranging domestic dogs at six rainforest locations in Far North Queensland that are Indigenous Australian communities and popular tourist attractions within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. By combining PCR-based techniques with traditional methods of hookworm species identification, we found the prevalence of hookworm in Indigenous community dogs was high (96.3% and 91.9% from necropsy and faecal samples, respectively). The majority of these infections were A. caninum. We also observed, for the first time, the presence of A. ceylanicum infection in domestic dogs (21.7%) and soil (55.6%) in an Indigenous community. A. ceylanicum was present in soil samples from two out of the three popular tourist locations sampled. Our results contribute to the understanding of dogs as a public health risk to Indigenous communities and tourists in the Wet Tropics. Dog health needs to be more fully addressed as part of the Australian Government's commitments to "closing the gap" in chronic disease between Indigenous and other Australians, and encouraging tourism in similar locations

Flux Compactifications of M-Theory on Twisted Tori

We find the bosonic sector of the gauged supergravities that are obtained from 11-dimensional supergravity by Scherk-Schwarz dimensional reduction with flux to any dimension D. We show that, if certain obstructions are absent, the Scherk-Schwarz ansatz for a finite set of D-dimensional fields can be extended to a full compactification of M-theory, including an infinite tower of Kaluza-Klein fields. The internal space is obtained from a group manifold (which may be non-compact) by a discrete identification. We discuss the symmetry algebra and the symmetry breaking patterns and illustrate these with particular examples. We discuss the action of U-duality on these theories in terms of symmetries of the D-dimensional supergravity, and argue that in general it will take geometric flux compactifications to M-theory on non-geometric backgrounds, such as U-folds with U-duality transition functions.Comment: Latex, 47 page

Quantum inequalities and `quantum interest' as eigenvalue problems

Quantum inequalities (QI's) provide lower bounds on the averaged energy density of a quantum field. We show how the QI's for massless scalar fields in even dimensional Minkowski space may be reformulated in terms of the positivity of a certain self-adjoint operator - a generalised Schroedinger operator with the energy density as the potential - and hence as an eigenvalue problem. We use this idea to verify that the energy density produced by a moving mirror in two dimensions is compatible with the QI's for a large class of mirror trajectories. In addition, we apply this viewpoint to the `quantum interest conjecture' of Ford and Roman, which asserts that the positive part of an energy density always overcompensates for any negative components. For various simple models in two and four dimensions we obtain the best possible bounds on the `quantum interest rate' and on the maximum delay between a negative pulse and a compensating positive pulse. Perhaps surprisingly, we find that - in four dimensions - it is impossible for a positive delta-function pulse of any magnitude to compensate for a negative delta-function pulse, no matter how close together they occur.Comment: 18 pages, RevTeX. One new result added; typos fixed. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Women in radiology: gender diversity is not a metric—it is a tool for excellence

Abstract: Women in Focus: Be Inspired was a unique programme held at the 2019 European Congress of Radiology that was structured to address a range of topics related to gender and healthcare, including leadership, mentoring and the generational progression of women in medicine. In most countries, women constitute substantially fewer than half of radiologists in academia or private practice despite frequently accounting for at least half of medical school enrolees. Furthermore, the proportion of women decreases at higher academic ranks and levels of leadership, a phenomenon which has been referred to as a “leaky pipeline”. Gender diversity in the radiologic workplace, including in academic and leadership positions, is important for the present and future success of the field. It is a tool for excellence that helps to optimize patient care and research; moreover, it is essential to overcome the current shortage of radiologists. This article reviews the current state of gender diversity in academic and leadership positions in radiology internationally and explores a wide range of potential reasons for gender disparities, including the lack of role models and mentorship, unconscious bias and generational changes in attitudes about the desirability of leadership positions. Strategies for both individuals and institutions to proactively increase the representation of women in academic and leadership positions are suggested. Key Points: • Gender-diverse teams perform better. Thus, gender diversity throughout the radiologic workplace, including in leadership positions, is important for the current and future success of the field. • Though women now make up roughly half of medical students, they remain underrepresented among radiology trainees, faculty and leaders. • Factors leading to the gender gap in academia and leadership positions in Radiology include a lack of role models and mentors, unconscious biases, other societal barriers and generational changes

A Naturally Narrow Positive Parity Theta^+

We present a consistent color-flavor-spin-orbital wave function for a positive parity Theta^+ that naturally explains the observed narrowness of the state. The wave function is totally symmetric in its flavor-spin part and totally antisymmetric in its color-orbital part. If flavor-spin interactions dominate, this wave function renders the positive parity Theta^+ lighter than its negative parity counterpart. We consider decays of the Theta^+ and compute the overlap of this state with the kinematically allowed final states. Our results are numerically small. We note that dynamical correlations between quarks are not necessary to obtain narrow pentaquark widths.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, Revtex4, two-column format, version to be published in Phys. Rev. D, includes numerical estimates of decay width

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Metadynamics Simulations Reveal the Atomistic Binding of l -Serine and O-Phospho- l -Serine at Disordered Calcium Phosphate Surfaces of Biocements

Interactions between biomolecules and structurally disordered calcium phosphate (CaP) surfaces are crucial for the regulation of bone mineralization by noncollagenous proteins, the organization of complexes of casein and amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) in milk, as well as for structure-function relationships of hybrid organic/inorganic interfaces in biomaterials. By a combination of advanced solid-state NMR experiments and metadynamics simulations, we examine the detailed binding of O-phospho-l-serine (Pser) and l-serine (Ser) with ACP in bone-adhesive CaP cements, whose capacity of gluing fractured bone together stems from the close integration of the organic molecules with ACP over a subnanometer scale. The proximity of each carboxy, aliphatic, and amino group of Pser/Ser to the Ca2+ and phosphate species of ACP observed from the metadynamics-derived models agreed well with results from heteronuclear solid-state NMR experiments that are sensitive to the 13C-31P and 15N-31P distances. The inorganic/organic contacts in Pser-doped cements are also contrasted with experimental and modeled data on the Pser binding at nanocrystalline HA particles grown from a Pser-bearing aqueous solution. The molecular adsorption is driven mainly by electrostatic interactions between the negatively charged carboxy/phosphate groups and Ca2+ cations of ACP, along with H bonds to either protonated or nonprotonated inorganic phosphate groups. The Pser and Ser molecules anchor at their phosphate/amino and carboxy/amino moieties, respectively, leading to an extended molecular conformation across the surface, as opposed to an "upright standing"molecule that would result from the binding of one sole functional group

Sustained ventricular arrhythmias among patients with acute coronary syndromes with no ST-segment elevation: incidence, predictors, and outcomes

BACKGROUND: The prognosis of ventricular arrhythmias among patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes is unknown. We studied the incidence, predictors, and outcomes of sustained ventricular arrhythmias in 4 large randomized trials of such patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: We pooled the datasets of the Global Use of Streptokinase and tPA for Occluded Arteries (GUSTO)-IIb, Platelet Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa in Unstable Angina: Receptor Suppression Using Integrilin Therapy (PURSUIT), Platelet IIb/IIIa Antagonism for the Reduction of Acute Coronary Syndrome Events in a Global Organization Network (PARAGON)-A, and PARAGON-B trials (n=26 416). We identified independent predictors of ventricular fibrillation (VF) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) and compared the 30-day and 6-month mortality rates of patients who did (n=552) and did not (n=25 864) develop these arrhythmias during the index hospitalization. Independent predictors of in-hospital VF included prior hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, prior myocardial infarction, and ST-segment changes at presentation. Except for hypertension, these variables also independently predicted in-hospital VT. In Cox proportional-hazards modeling, in-hospital VF and VT were independently associated with 30-day mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 23.2 [95% CI, 18.1 to 29.8] for VF and HR, 7.6 [95% CI, 5.5 to 10.4] for VT) and 6-month mortality (HR, 14.8 [95% CI, 12.1 to 18.3] for VF and HR, 5.0 [95% CI, 3.8 to 6.5] for VT). These differences remained significant after excluding patients with heart failure or cardiogenic shock and those who died <24 hours after enrollment. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the use of effective therapies for non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes, ventricular arrhythmias in this setting are associated with increased 30-day and 6-month mortality. More effective therapies are needed to improve the survival of patients with these arrhythmias