Excited states of beryllium atom from explicitly correlated wave functions

A study of the first excited states of beryllium atom starting from explicitly correlated wave functions is carried out. Several properties are obtained and discussed focusing on the analysis of the Hund's rules in terms of the single--particle and electron pair intracule and extracule densities. A systematic study of the differences on the electronic distributions of the singlet and triplet states is carried out. The trial wave function used to describe the different bound states consists of a generalized Jastrow-type correlation factor times a configuration interaction model wave function. This model wave function has been fixed by using a generalization of the optimized effective potential method to deal with multiconfiguration wave functions. The optimization of the wave function and the calculation of the different quantities is carried out by means of the Variational Monte Carlo method.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figure

Analysing Phraseological Units in Legal Translation: Evaluation of Translation Errors for the English-Spanish Language Pair

This paper describes a contrastive case study carried out with a sample of second-year undergraduate students studying a BA in Translation at the University of Westminster (UoW). The case study analyses the translation strategies used by translation students when dealing with certain phraseological units (PU) in a piece of legal translation coursework involving the English into Spanish language pair. This paper aims to describe the type of errors students tend to make when they translate PU in a semi-specialized legal text and to establish a comparison between the most common errors made by English native speakers (ENS) and Spanish native speakers (SNS). Under the umbrella term of phraseological unit, the stress of this study is mainly put on the analysis of collocations, which can be defined as the combination of two or more words which frequently appear in combination with each other and where each lexical unit retains its meaning (Buendía 2013; Buendía, Montero & Faber 2014). In the light of this analysis and in line with recent case studies undertaken in the field of legal translation (Pontrandolfo 2016), this paper points to some approaches that enhance the phraseological competence required in semi-specialized legal translation courses. These approaches include task-based approaches applied to translator training (e.g. Hurtado Albir 1999/2003, 2015a, 2015b; González Davies 2004; Borja 2007/2015; Huc-Hepher & Huertas Barros 2016), critical discourse analysis (Way 2012), and approaches based on decision making and problem solving (Prieto Ramos 2014; Way 2014)

Optimising resourcing skills to develop phraseological competence in legal translation: tasks and approaches

Based on a previous case study on common translation errors made by trainee translators when dealing with phraseological units in legal translation (Huertas Barros and Buendía 2017), this paper proposes some activities and approaches to minimise these errors and hence enhance students’ phraseological competence in this field. To this end, we first provide a description of the most representative legal resources available for translators, particularly for the English-Spanish language pair. Then we review some of the existing approaches that could develop students’ legal translation competence, particularly phraseological competence. For each type of error identified in our previous case study, we propose a set of research-based activities which could avoid such errors by maximising the use of legal resources. The emphasis is put on preliminary documentary research and effective use of corpora prior to the translation task. In order to mitigate translation errors, we propose an integrated approach combining task-based approaches with approaches based on critical discourse analysis, and problem-solving and decision-making. While these tasks have been designed for a semi-specialised legal text pertaining to a subdomain of Family Law (i.e. adoption), they can be easily applied to any other areas of subdomains of legal translation

Global investments in pandemic preparedness and COVID-19: development assistance and domestic spending on health between 1990 and 2026

Background The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted gaps in health surveillance systems, disease prevention, and treatment globally. Among the many factors that might have led to these gaps is the issue of the financing of national health systems, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as a robust global system for pandemic preparedness. We aimed to provide a comparative assessment of global health spending at the onset of the pandemic; characterise the amount of development assistance for pandemic preparedness and response disbursed in the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic; and examine expectations for future health spending and put into context the expected need for investment in pandemic preparedness. Methods In this analysis of global health spending between 1990 and 2021, and prediction from 2021 to 2026, we estimated four sources of health spending: development assistance for health (DAH), government spending, out-of-pocket spending, and prepaid private spending across 204 countries and territories. We used the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Creditor Reporting System (CRS) and the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database (GHED) to estimate spending. We estimated development assistance for general health, COVID-19 response, and pandemic preparedness and response using a keyword search. Health spending estimates were combined with estimates of resources needed for pandemic prevention and preparedness to analyse future health spending patterns, relative to need. Findings In 2019, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, USD 9·2 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 9·1–9·3) was spent on health worldwide. We found great disparities in the amount of resources devoted to health, with high-income countries spending USD 7·3 trillion (95% UI 7·2–7·4) in 2019; 293·7 times the USD 24·8 billion (95% UI 24·3–25·3) spent by low-income countries in 2019. That same year, USD 43·1 billion in development assistance was provided to maintain or improve health. The pandemic led to an unprecedented increase in development assistance targeted towards health; in 2020 and 2021, USD 1·8 billion in DAH contributions was provided towards pandemic preparedness in LMICs, and USD 37·8 billion was provided for the health-related COVID-19 response. Although the support for pandemic preparedness is 12·2% of the recommended target by the High-Level Independent Panel (HLIP), the support provided for the health-related COVID-19 response is 252·2% of the recommended target. Additionally, projected spending estimates suggest that between 2022 and 2026, governments in 17 (95% UI 11–21) of the 137 LMICs will observe an increase in national government health spending equivalent to an addition of 1% of GDP, as recommended by the HLIP. Interpretation There was an unprecedented scale-up in DAH in 2020 and 2021. We have a unique opportunity at this time to sustain funding for crucial global health functions, including pandemic preparedness. However, historical patterns of underfunding of pandemic preparedness suggest that deliberate effort must be made to ensure funding is maintained. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Monte Carlo Study of Mixed-Spin S=(1/2,1) Ising Ferrimagnets

We investigate Ising ferrimagnets on square and simple-cubic lattices with exchange couplings between spins of values S=1/2 and S=1 on neighbouring sites and an additional single-site anisotropy term on the S=1 sites. Based mainly on a careful and comprehensive Monte Carlo study, we conclude that there is no tricritical point in the two--dimensional case, in contradiction to mean-field predictions and recent series results. However, evidence for a tricritical point is found in the three-dimensional case. In addition, a line of compensation points is found for the simple-cubic, but not for the square lattice.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure