Product Liability, Entry Incentives, and Industry Structure

Industrial Organization,

Structural and spectroscopic characterisation of C4 oxygenates relevant to structure/activity relationships of the hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated carbonyls

In the present work, we have investigated the conformational isomerism and calculated the vibrational spectra of the C4 oxygenates: 3-butyne-2-one, 3-butene-2-one, 2-butanone and 2-butanol using density functional theory. The calculations are validated by comparison to structural data where available and new, experimental inelastic neutron scattering and infrared spectra of the compounds. We find that for 3-butene-2-one and 2-butanol the spectra show clear evidence for the presence of conformational isomerism and this is supported by the calculations. Complete vibrational assignments for all four molecules are provided and this provides the essential information needed to generate structure/activity relationships for the sequential catalytic hydrogenation of 3-butyne-2-one to 2-butanol

Warming winters and New Hampshire’s lost ski areas: An integrated case study

New Hampshire’s mountains and winter climate support a ski industry that contributes substantially to the state economy. Through more than 70 years of history, this industry has adapted and changed with its host society. The climate itself has changed during this period too, in ways that influenced the ski industry’s development. During the 20th century, New Hampshire’s mean winter temperature warmed about 2.1° C (3.8° F). Much of that change occurred since 1970. The mult‐decadal variations in New Hampshire winters follow global temperature trends. Snowfall exhibits a downward trend, strongest in southern New Hampshire, and also correlates with the North Atlantic Oscillation. Many small ski areas opened during the early years while winters were cold and snowy. As winters warmed, areas in southern or lowelevation locations faced a critical disadvantage. Under pressure from both climate and competition, the number of small ski areas leveled off and then fell steeply after 1970. The number of larger, chairliftoperating ski areas began falling too after 1980. Aprolonged warming period increased the importance of geographic advantages, and also of capital investment in snowmaking, grooming and economic diversification. The consolidation trend continues today. Most of the surviving ski areas are located in the northern mountains. Elsewhere around the state, one can find the remains of “lost” ski areas in places that now rarely have snow suitable for downhill skiing. This case study demonstrates a general approach for conducting integrated empirical research on the human dimensions of climate change

Historical and contemporary perspectives on the sediments of Lake Rotorua

Lake Rotorua is probably the oldest continuously inundated lake in New Zealand, occupying a caldera formed by or closely associated with the eruption of the Mamaku ignimbrite and the collapse of the Rotorua caldera (Healy, 1975; Lowe and Green, 1991). The lake has undergone drastic changes in size and depth as a result of tectonics, volcanic activity and erosion. Since the Rotoehu eruption, (~60 kyr), the lake level has fluctuated between 120 m above present (280 m asl) and 10 m below present level. The modern lake covers an area of 79 km2 and has a mean depth of 10 m. Despite its long history of sedimentation, Lake Rotorua has an irregular bathymetry with features including faulted blocks, slumps, hydrothermal explosion craters, springs and large methane discharge pock marks

Environmental Policy with Collective Waste Disposal

Centralized collection and disposal is an integral component of waste management strategies for many solid and liquid wastes, and carbon capture and storage is currently being considered for gaseous waste. In this paper we show how collective waste disposal systems introduce essential changes in the design of optimal environmental policy. Absent collective disposal, an optimal environmental policy imposes relatively stringent regulations on polluters in regions where local environmental damage functions are “high”; however, under collective waste disposal, the optimal environmental policy level increases monotonically over distance from the disposal site, and this is true irrespective of the degree of spatial heterogeneity in local environmental damage functions. We characterize the optimal spatial pattern of environmental policy levels under collective waste disposal and identify optimal membership size for waste disposal networks comprised of homogeneous producers

Four Logics and a Protocol

The Internet Protocol (IP) is the protocol used to provide connectionless communication between hosts connected to the Internet. It provides a basic internetworking service to transport protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). These in turn provide both connection-oriented and connectionless services to applications such as file transfer (FTP) and WWW browsing. In this paper we present four separate specifications of the interface to the internetworking layer implemented by IP using four types of logic: classical, constructive, temporal and linear logic

Time Course of Changes in Peripheral Blood Gene Expression During Medication Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder.

Changes in gene expression (GE) during antidepressant treatment may increase understanding of the action of antidepressant medications and serve as biomarkers of efficacy. GE changes in peripheral blood are desirable because they can be assessed easily on multiple occasions during treatment. We report here on GE changes in 68 individuals who were treated for 8 weeks with either escitalopram alone, or escitalopram followed by bupropion. GE changes were assessed after 1, 2, and 8 weeks of treatment, with significant changes observed in 156, 121, and 585 peripheral blood gene transcripts, respectively. Thirty-one transcript changes were shared between the 1- and 8-week time points (seven upregulated, 24 downregulated). Differences were detected between the escitalopram- and bupropion-treated subjects, although there was no significant association between GE changes and clinical outcome. A subset of 18 genes overlapped with those previously identified as differentially expressed in subjects with MDD compared with healthy control subjects. There was statistically significant overlap between genes differentially expressed in the current and previous studies, with 10 genes overlapping in at least two previous studies. There was no enrichment for genes overexpressed in nervous system cell types, but there was a trend toward enrichment for genes in the WNT/β-catenin pathway in the anterior thalamus; three genes in this pathway showed differential expression in the present and in three previous studies. Our dataset and other similar studies will provide an important source of information about potential biomarkers of recovery and for potential dysregulation of GE in MDD

The influence of facemasks on communication in healthcare settings: a systematic review

PurposeAlthough a well-established aspect of healthcare practice, the impact of facemasks on verbal communication is surprisingly ambiguous.Materials and MethodsA systematic search was conducted in APA PSYCHinfo, CINAHL, NHS Knowledge Network, Medline and SPORTDiscus databases from inception to November 2022 according to the PRISMA guidelines. Studies reporting an objective measure of speech understanding in adults, where information was transmitted or received whilst wearing a facemask were included. Risk of bias of included studies was assessed with the Newcastle-Ottawa score.ResultsFour hundred and thirty-three studies were identified, of which fifteen were suitable for inclusion, incorporating 350 participants with a median age of 49 (range 19 to 74) years. Wide heterogeneity of test parameters and outcome measurement prohibited pooling of data. 93% (14 of 15) studies reported a deleterious effect of facemasks on speech understanding, and 100% (5 of 5) of the included studies reported attenuation of sound with facemask usage. Background noise added further deleterious effects on speech understanding which was particularly problematic within hearing-impaired populations. Risk of bias in included studies varied but overall was modest.ConclusionsDespite considerable complexity and heterogeneity in outcome measure, 93% (14 of 15) articles suggest respiratory protective equipment negatively affects speech understanding in normal hearing and hearing-impaired adults.Implications for Rehabilitation As a result of the covid-19 pandemic, facemask use is now commonplace across all healthcare and rehabilitation settings and has material implications for interpersonal communication. This systematic review of human communicative studies highlights that the use of facemasks does indeed inhibit communication through effects on speech intelligibility and through sound attenuation. These effects are evident in both normal hearing and hearing-impaired adults due to the visual cues required with lipreading and facial expressions during communication. The presence of background noise also produces deleterious effects on speech understanding and is more problematic for hearing-impaired populations. Simple recommendations to reduce background noise (where possible), to step closer (where social-distancing rules permit), to speak louder or to use speech to text applications (if practical) could all mitigate these communicative barriers. Further an awareness of persons with hearing impairments, the function (or otherwise) of hearing aids in those patients that require these, and an ability to use transparent facemasks can be specifically helpful