SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION OF SECURITIES TRADE SETTLEMENT MESSAGES APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES OF FORMAL LANGUAGES FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

The increased use of network communications within industries, and among firms, suppliers, and customers, is focusing greater attention on the methods and standards for interorganizational communications. In the securities indushy, the settlement and clearing of trades depends on numerous messages to be sent and received by several organizations. Using the principles of Formal Languages for Business Communication (FLBC), we develop a message representation that is flexible and self-describing, and show how defeasible reasoning applied to settlement messages could handle problem trades. This application of FLBC offers advantages through machine-to-machine error reconcilement, integration with other market communications systems, and robustness to changes in securities design and regulation.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Exploring ways to overcome barriers to mammography uptake and retention among South Asian immigrant women

South Asians comprise one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in North America. Evidence indicates that South Asian (SA) immigrant women are vulnerable to low rates of breast cancer screening. Yet, there is a dearth of knowledge pertaining to socio-culturally tailored strategies to guide the uptake of screening mammography in the SA community. In 2010, the authors conducted semi-structured focus groups to elicit perspectives of health and social service professionals on possible solutions to barriers identified by SA immigrant women in a recent study conducted in the Greater Toronto Area. Thirty-five health and social services staff members participated in five focus groups. The discussions were audio taped and detailed field notes were taken. All collected data was transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was conducted using techniques of constant comparison within and across the group discussions. Three dominant themes were identified: 1) “Target and Tailor” focused on awareness-raising through multiple direct and indirect modes or approaches with underlying shared processes of involving men and the whole family, use of first language, and learning from peers; 2) “Enhancing Access to Services” included a focus on ‘adding ancillary services’ and ‘reinforcement of existing services’ including expansion to a one-stop model; and 3) “Meta-Characteristics” centred on providing ‘multi-pronged’ approaches to reach the community, and ‘sustainability’ of initiatives by addressing structural barriers of adequate funding, healthcare provider mix, inter-sectoral collaboration, and community voice. The findings simultaneously shed light on the grass-roots practical strategies and the system level changes in order to develop efficient programmes for the uptake of mammography among SA immigrant women. The parallel focus on the “Target and Tailor” and “Enhancing Access to Services” calls for coordination at the policy level so that multiple sectors work jointly to streamline resources, or meta-characteristics.The project funds were provided by the Canadian Cancer Society, Ontario Division

Solid-State Deuterium Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of the Methyl Dynamics of Poly(Alpha-methylstyrene) and Polymethylphenylsilane

The methyl-d3 dynamics of two relatively similar polymers, poly(alpha-methylstyrene) (PAMS-d3) and polymethylphenylsilane (PMPS-d3), are investigated via deuterium NMR relaxation experiments. Our analysis of the relaxation data uses the entire solid-echo spectra to maximize the precision of the experiments with regard to the information available on the methyl dynamics. The analysis is novel in that it does not use M[infinity] or M0 to fit the relaxation data. Additionally, the three-site symmetric jump model is shown to not have an observable azimuthal angular dependence for T1 relaxation. The methyl dynamics are quantified with taum, sigma, and f which are the log-average correlation time, half-height full-width (base 10) of a log-normal distribution of reorientation rates, and the anisotropy of the relaxation, respectively. The anisotropy parameter, f, is based on a serial combination of the rotational diffusion and symmetric three-site jump reorientation of a methyl deuteron. This serial model coupled with a distribution of tauc\u27s has a minimal number of parameters that have physical meaning and quantify the observations of our relaxation data. Generally, at similar temperatures the methyl reorientation in PAMS-d3 is at least 100 times slower than that of PMPS-d3. For both polymers, both taum and sigma decrease with increasing temperature, resulting in activation energies of 12 and 5 kJ/mol for PAMS-d3 and PMPS-d3, respectively. Also, with increasing temperature a mechanistic change from three-site jump to rotational diffusion is observed and quantified. This information, along with that of other studies, suggests that the PAMS-d3 methyls have highly restrictive environments that may be closely coupled to phenyl-ring reorientation

Assuring Access: One Library\u27s Journey from Print to Electronic Only Subscriptions

The migration of library collections from print to electronic formats has been a priority for many institutions during the last ten years and has played a key role in the transformation of the modern academic library. Not surprisingly, this process has been labor-intensive, costly, and occasionally frustrating to those involved in the transformation. This article recounts the challenges that the Central Michigan University Libraries faced and the measures it established to overcome these challenges as it undertook the process of successfully moving from a print-based to a predominately electronic only subscription collection

SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION OF SECURITIES TRADE SETTLEMENT MESSAGES APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES OF FORMAL LANGUAGES FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

The increased use of network communications within industries, and among firms, suppliers, and customers, is focusing greater attention on the methods and standards for interorganizational communications. In the securities indushy, the settlement and clearing of trades depends on numerous messages to be sent and received by several organizations. Using the principles of Formal Languages for Business Communication (FLBC), we develop a message representation that is flexible and self-describing, and show how defeasible reasoning applied to settlement messages could handle problem trades. This application of FLBC offers advantages through machine-to-machine error reconcilement, integration with other market communications systems, and robustness to changes in securities design and regulation.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Evidence for an interaction between the Galactic Center clouds M0.10-0.08 and M0.11-0.11

We present high-resolution (~2-3"; ~0.1 pc) radio observations of the Galactic center cloud M0.10-0.08 using the Very Large Array at K and Ka band (~25 and 36 GHz). The M0.10-0.08 cloud is located in a complex environment near the Galactic center Radio Arc and the adjacent M0.11-0.11 molecular cloud. From our data, M0.10-0.08 appears to be a compact molecular cloud (~3 pc) that contains multiple compact molecular cores (5+; <0.4 pc). In this study we detect a total of 15 molecular transitions in M0.10-0.08 from the following molecules: NH3, HC3N, CH3OH, HC5N, CH3CN, and OCS. We have identified more than sixty 36 GHz CH3OH masers in M0.10-0.08 with brightness temperatures above 400 K and 31 maser candidates with temperatures between 100-400 K. We conduct a kinematic analysis of the gas using NH3 and detect multiple velocity components towards this region of the Galactic center. The bulk of the gas in this region has a velocity of 51.5 km/s (M0.10-0.08) with a lower velocity wing at 37.6 km/s. We also detect a relatively faint velocity component at 10.6 km/s that we attribute to being an extension of the M0.11-0.11 cloud. Analysis of the gas kinematics, combined with past X-ray fluorescence observations, suggests M0.10-0.08 and M0.11-0.11 are located in the same vicinity of the Galactic center and could be physically interacting.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa