Managing the circulation of banknotes

Issuing banknotes is one of the Bank of England’s best known and most recognisable functions. To maintain confidence in the physical currency, genuine notes must be available to meet public demand. This article explains how the note circulation is managed to maintain this confidence. The Bank’s role in this has changed considerably over the past 50 years with technological innovations and as the involvement of the commercial sector has grown. The Bank’s response to future developments will continue to be consistent with its objective of ensuring the availability of genuine notes of good quality in a balanced mix of denominations.

The Examination Effect: A Comparison of the Outcome of Patent Examination in the US, Europe and Australia, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 21 (2016)

The article provides an answer to a question that, rather surprisingly, has not been addressed in the academic literature to date: What is the practical effect of patent examination? It does so by undertaking an empirical analysis of the examination of nearly 500 patent applications, filed in identical form, in three patent offices: the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), and the Australian Patent Office (APO). By comparing the form of claim 1 as granted with claim 1 in the patent application, we can identify whether there is any meaningful difference between the two and, if so, what is the type of difference. Any identifiable difference will show both the extent to which, and the way in which, the examination process within each office has a practical effect. Furthermore, by comparing the frequency with which each office effects meaningful change to claim 1, we can identify in which of the offices the process of examination has the greatest practical effect. We find that the routine effect of patent examination is to produce meaningful change, specifically a narrowing, to the definition of the invention contained in claim 1 of the patent. Importantly, this effect occurs more often in the USPTO than in the EPO, and more often in both of those offices than in the APO. Notably, our findings suggest that the quality of patents granted by the USPTO is higher than those granted by the other two offices despite its reputation for issuing many bad quality patents

Expectations of Care, Perceived Safety, and Anxiety following Acute Behavioural Disturbance in the Emergency Department

Objective. We explored perspectives of emergency department users (patients and visitors) regarding the management of acute behavioural disturbances in the emergency department and whether these disturbances influenced their levels of anxiety. Methods. Emergency department patients and visitors were surveyed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and a purpose-designed questionnaire and semistructured interview. The main outcome measures were themes that emerged from the questionnaires, the interviews, and scores from the state component of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results. 70 participants were recruited. Users of the emergency department preferred behaviourally disturbed people be managed in a separate area from the general emergency department population so that the disturbance was inaudible (n = 32) and out of view (n = 40). The state anxiety levels of those that witnessed an acute behavioural disturbance were within the normal range and did not differ to that of ED patients that were not present during such a disturbance (median, control = 37, Code Grey = 33). Conclusions. Behavioural disturbances in the emergency department do not provoke anxiety in other users. However, there is a preference that such disturbances be managed out of visual and audible range. Innovative design features may be required to achieve this

Letter. On the activation of [CrCl3{R-SN(H)S-R}] catalysts for selective trimerization of ethene: a freeze-quench Cr K-edge XAFS study

Homogeneous chromium catalysts for the selective conversion of ethene to hex-1-ene are formed from Cr(III) reagents, amino-thioether ligands of the type HN(CH2CH2SR)2, and aluminum reagents. In this study the early activation steps are investigated by EPR, UV-visible and Cr K-edge XAFS spectroscopy; rapid stopped-flow mixing and a freeze-quench allows good quality EXAFS analysis of a species formed in ~ 1 second of reaction. This is shown to involve reduction to Cr(II) and deprotonation of a NH group of the auxiliary ligand. This 4-coordinate metal-center may act as precursor for the coordination of ethene and subsequent selective oligomerization

System Effects in Identifying Risk-Optimal Data Requirements for Digital Twins of Structures

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) technologies offer much promise to the risk management of the built environment, and they are therefore an active area of research. However, information regarding material properties, such as toughness and strength is instead measured in destructive lab tests. Similarly, the presence of geometrical anomalies is more commonly detected and sized by inspection. Therefore, a risk-optimal combination should be sought, acknowledging that different scenarios will be associated with different data requirements. Value of Information (VoI) analysis is an established statistical framework for quantifying the expected benefit of a prospective data collection activity. In this paper the expected value of various combinations of inspection, SHM and testing are quantified, in the context of supporting risk management of a location of stress concentration in a railway bridge. The Julia code for this analysis (probabilistic models and influence diagrams) is made available. The system-level results differ from a simple linear sum of marginal VoI estimates, i.e. the expected value of collecting data from SHM and inspection together is not equal to the expected value of SHM data plus the expected value of inspection data. In summary, system-level decision making, requires system-level models

Which anthropometric and lower body power variables are predictive of professional and amateur playing status in male rugby union players?

The purpose of this study was to compare anthropometric and lower body power measurements between current professional and amateur male rugby union players. The present study also sought to determine which anthropometric and physical performance variables were predictive of playing standard. Thirty professional and 30 amateur RU players performed Wattbike 6 s maximal effort (WB6S) and countermovement (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ) assessments, anthropometric measures were also taken. Dependant variables recorded and analysed including: body mass, stature, Σ8 site skinfolds, WB6S absolute and relative peak power, CMJ and SJ average concentric force, jump height, peak velocity, time to peak force, rate of force development (RFD) and absolute and relative peak force and power. Professional players were heavier, taller and leaner than their amateur counterparts (p < 0.05). Professional players performed significantly better in all physical performance measures except CMJ and SJ time to peak force, CMJ RFD and SJ relative peak force. Variables which were predictive of playing standard were: Σ8 skinfolds, CMJ peak velocity and WB6S absolute and relative peak power (p < 0.05). These findings indicate that the current body of male professional RU players is anthropometrically and physically superior to their amateur counterparts, although not all variables assessed here were predictive of playing standard. Data presented here indicate that Σ8 skinfolds, WB6S absolute and relative power and CMJ peak velocity are predictive of playing standard, whereas other anthropometric and strength and power variables are not

Blip glitches in Advanced LIGO data

Blip glitches are short noise transients present in data from ground-based gravitational-wave observatories. These glitches resemble the gravitational-wave signature of massive binary black hole mergers. Hence, the sensitivity of transient gravitational-wave searches to such high-mass systems and other potential short duration sources is degraded by the presence of blip glitches. The origin and rate of occurrence of this type of glitch have been largely unknown. In this paper we explore the population of blip glitches in Advanced LIGO during its first and second observing runs. On average, we find that Advanced LIGO data contains approximately two blip glitches per hour of data. We identify four subsets of blip glitches correlated with detector auxiliary or environmental sensor channels, however the physical causes of the majority of blips remain unclear