The Accounting Actions of the Liberator in the Face of the Economic Crisis of the Republican Project of the Great Colombia (1827–1830)

This text outlines the executive decisions of “El Libertador” Simón Bolívar, based on accounting as he managed the redirection of the Republican Treasury, seeking a point of equilibrium between costs and income that would allow delaying the imminent transfer of financial control of Gran Colombia to the hands of international creditors. This a theoretical reflection on an ignored side of “El Libertador” as an accountant, scheduler, and manager of public finances, these emerged booths among the products of historical-educational research on the accounting system adopted by the authorities in charge of the republican destinies of Gran Colombia. The points of attention, on which Bolivar’s accounting actions are revealed, are condensed in the inability of the republican project to develop an accounting policy that envisioned the way to meet the needs of information and control required by the treasury and, in the ideological polarization between the departments of New Granada, Venezuela and Ecuador that prevented the implementation of any feasibility plan to avoid the trauma of the dissolution of the republic

Tsallis entropy approach to radiotherapy treatments

The biological effect of one single radiation dose on a living tissue has been described by several radiobiological models. However, the fractionated radiotherapy requires to account for a new magnitude: time. In this paper we explore the biological consequences posed by the mathematical prolongation of a model to fractionated treatment. Nonextensive composition rules are introduced to obtain the survival fraction and equivalent physical dose in terms of a time dependent factor describing the tissue trend towards recovering its radioresistance (a kind of repair coefficient). Interesting (known and new) behaviors are described regarding the effectiveness of the treatment which is shown to be fundamentally bound to this factor. The continuous limit, applicable to brachytherapy, is also analyzed in the framework of nonextensive calculus. Also here a coefficient arises that rules the time behavior. All the results are discussed in terms of the clinical evidence and their major implications are highlighted.Comment: 6 figures, accepted for publication to Physica

Determinantes del ahorro interno en Uruguay

El documento analiza los determinantes del ahorro interno en Uruguay. Por un lado, se consideran los determinantes de ahorro privado, mediante un análisis econométrico de las series anuales y trimestrales del consumo privado agregado. Por otro lado, se analiza el resultado fiscal mediante una descomposición entre factores discrecionales y no discrecionales. Se pone particular énfasis en el análisis de los efectos de dos episodios de estabilización basados en el tipo de cambio (1978-82 y 1991 en adelante) y la liberalización financiera de mediados de los años 70. Se encuentra que no se puede aceptar la hipótesis de ingreso permanente-ciclo de vida, existiendo una dependencia contemporánea entre crecimiento del consumo privado y crecimiento del ingreso que puede interpretarse como proveniente de restricciones de liquidez (de acuerdo al modelo de Campbell y Mankiw, 1989). El grado de esas restricciones de liquidez varía con el crédito bancario, pero este factor no resulta importante en los booms de consumo que acompañaron a los planes de estabilización basados en el tipo de cambio. Por otro lado, paradójicamente, no parecen haber cambios relevantes en el grado de restricciones de liquidez antes y después de la liberalización financiera.

Biphasic concentration patterns in ionic transport under nanoconfinement revealed in steady-state and time-dependent properties

Ion permeation across nanoscopic structures differs considerably from microfluidics because of strong steric constraints, transformed solvent properties, and charge-regulation effects revealed mostly in diluted solutions. However, little is known about nanofluidics in moderately concentrated solutions, which are critically important for industrial applications and living systems. Here, we show that nanoconfinement triggers general biphasic concentration patterns in a myriad of ion transport properties by using two contrasting systems: a biological ion channel and a much larger synthetic nanopore. Our findings show a low-concentration regime ruled by classical Debye screening and another one where ion–ion correlations and enhanced ion–surface interactions contribute differently to each electrophysiological property. Thus, different quantities (e.g., conductance vs noise) measured under the same conditions may appear contradictory because they belong to different concentration regimes. In addition, non-linear effects that are barely visible in bulk conductivity only in extremely concentrated solutions become apparent in nanochannels around physiological conditions

Metal Concentrations in e-Cigarette Liquid and Aerosol Samples:The Contribution of Metallic Coils

Supplemental Material is available online (https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2175)Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) generate an aerosol by heating a solution (e-liquid) with a metallic coil. Whether metals are transferred from the coil to the aerosol is unknown. Objective: Our goal was to investigate the transfer of metals from the heating coil to the e-liquid in the e-cigarette tank and the generated aerosol. Methods: We sampled 56 e-cigarette devices from daily e-cigarette users and obtained samples from the refilling dispenser, aerosol, and remaining e-liquid in the tank. Aerosol liquid was collected via deposition of aerosol droplets in a series of conical pipette tips. Metals were reported as mass fractions (μg/kg) in liquids and converted to mass concentrations (mg/m3) for aerosols. Results: Median metal concentrations (μg/kg) were higher in samples from the aerosol and tank vs. the dispenser (all p<0.001): 16.3 and 31.2 vs. 10.9 for Al; 8.38 and 55.4 vs. <0.5 for Cr; 68.4 and 233 vs. 2.03 for Ni; 14.8 and 40.2 vs. 0.476 for Pb; and 515 and 426 vs. 13.1 for Zn. Mn, Fe, Cu, Sb, and Sn were detectable in most samples. Cd was detected in 0.0, 30.4, and 55.1% of the dispenser, aerosol, and tank samples respectively. Arsenic was detected in 10.7% of dispenser samples (median 26.7 μg/kg) and these concentrations were similar in aerosol and tank samples. Aerosol mass concentrations (mg/m3) for the detected metals spanned several orders of magnitude and exceeded current health-based limits in close to 50% or more of the samples for Cr, Mn, Ni, and Pb. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that e-cigarettes are a potential source of exposure to toxic metals (Cr, Ni, and Pb), and to metals that are toxic when inhaled (Mn and Zn). Markedly higher concentrations in the aerosol and tank samples versus the dispenser demonstrate that coil contact induced e-liquid contamination.This study is supported by the Cigarette Restitution Fund (State of Maryland; grant PHPA-G2034). P.O. was supported by the Alfonso Martín Escudero Foundation (postdoctoral fellowship 2014). A.A. was supported by the American Heart Association Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center (grant 1P50HL120163). A.N.A., M.H., and P.O. are supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/National Institutes of Health (grant 5P30ES009089)

First tests of the applicability of gamma-ray imaging for background discrimination in time-of-flight neutron capture measurements

In this work we explore for the first time the applicability of using gamma-ray imaging in neutron capture measurements to identify and suppress spatially localized background. For this aim, a pinhole gamma camera is assembled, tested and characterized in terms of energy and spatial performance. It consists of a monolithic CeBr3 scintillating crystal coupled to a position-sensitive photomultiplier and readout through an integrated circuit AMIC2GR. The pinhole collimator is a massive carven block of lead. A series of dedicated measurements with calibrated sources and with a neutron beam incident on a Au-197 sample have been carried out at n_TOF, achieving an enhancement of a factor of two in the signal-to-background ratio when selecting only those events coming from the direction of the sample. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Postprint (author's final draft