Sexual decision making in the absence of choice: The African American female dating experience.

Although links between low mate availability and increased HIV and STI risk for African American women have been documented in the literature, we know little about the impact of limited mate choices on the quality of relationships between Black men and women and how these relationship dynamics impact risk for young Black women. We conducted a qualitative study with African American female young adults (N=12) to explore the perceived impact of structural forces on African American female young adults’ dating and sexual behavior. Participants reported (1) perceptions of Black men as untrustworthy and manipulative, (2) the limited and often negative roles for Black men in the larger Black community, and (3) heterosexual relationships in the Black community as increasingly influenced by economics and commerce. Recommendations for HIV prevention interventions that include micro and macro level approaches are discussed

Explainable Severity ranking via pairwise n-hidden comparison: a case study of glaucoma

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is a chronic and progressive optic nerve condition that results in an acquired loss of optic nerve fibers and potential blindness. The gradual onset of glaucoma results in patients progressively losing their vision without being consciously aware of the changes. To diagnose POAG and determine its severity, patients must undergo a comprehensive dilated eye examination. In this work, we build a framework to rank, compare, and interpret the severity of glaucoma using fundus images. We introduce a siamese-based severity ranking using pairwise n-hidden comparisons. We additionally have a novel approach to explaining why a specific image is deemed more severe than others. Our findings indicate that the proposed severity ranking model surpasses traditional ones in terms of diagnostic accuracy and delivers improved saliency explanations.Comment: 4 page

Fair Values: A Framework For Teaching The Standards On Accounting For Financial Instruments

This paper presents a conceptual framework for an integration of financial reporting objectives and principles related to financial instruments.  We believe this integrated approach to be a superior strategy for discussing this diverse and challenging topic.  In our experience, the typical piecemeal coverage of individual instruments scattered in financial accounting texts and other literature is not effective in providing students with a critical appreciation of the evolution in financial reporting requirements in this area. Our approach in this paper is to classify financial instruments into groups according to their special characteristics as a basis for understanding their relevant financial reporting attributes.  Within this conceptual framework, we then present a synthesis of reporting objectives and existing FASB pronouncements on financial instruments.  Using this framework as a roadmap, students should be able to study current and emerging pronouncements in a conceptually organized and integrated fashion. 

The empirical evaluation of thermal conduction coefficient of some liquid composite heat insulating materials

We experimentally determined the coefficients of thermal conductivity of some ultra thin liquid composite heat insulating coatings, for sample 1 [lambda]=0.086 W/(m [x] C), for sample 2 [lambda]= 0.091 W/(m [x] C). We performed the measurement error calculation. The actual thermal conduction coefficient of the studied samples was higher than the declared one. The manufactures of liquid coatings might have used some "ideal" conditions when defining heat conductivity in the laboratory or the coefficient was obtained by means of theoretical solution of heat conduction problem in liquid composite insulating media. However, liquid insulating coatings are of great interest to builders, because they allow to warm objects of complex geometric shapes (valve chambers, complex assemblies, etc.), which makes them virtually irreplaceable. The proper accounting of heating qualities of paints will allow to avoid heat loss increase above the specified limits in insulated pipes with heat transfer materials or building structures, as well as protect them from possible thawing in the period of subzero weather

Designing a novel heterostructure AgInS₂@MIL-101(Cr) photocatalyst from PET plastic waste for tetracycline degradation

Semiconductor-containing porous materials with a well-defined structure could be unique scaffolds for carrying out selective organic transformations driven by visible light. We herein introduce for the first time a heterostructure of silver indium sulfide (AgInS(2)) ternary chalcogenide and a highly porous MIL-101(Cr) metal–organic framework (MOF) synthesised from polyethylene terephthalate plastic waste. Our results demonstrate that AgInS(2) nanoparticles were uniformly attached to each lattice plane of the octahedral MIL-101(Cr) structure, resulting in a nanocomposite with a high distribution of semiconductors in a porous media. We also demonstrate that the nanocomposite with up to 40% of AgInS(2) doping exhibited excellent catalytic activity for tetracycline degradation under visible light irradiation (∼99% tetracycline degraded after 4 h) and predominantly maintained its performance after five cycles. These results could promote a new material circularity pathway to develop new semiconductors that can be used to protect water from further pollution

Tournament-Based Incentives and Mergers and Acquisitions

This research examines the relation between tournament-based incentives, which are proxied by the difference between a firm’s CEO pay and the median pay of the senior managers, and mergers and acquisitions (M&As). We find that tournament-based incentives are positively related to firm acquisitiveness and acquiring firms’ stock and operating performance. Further analysis indicates that positive acquisition performance increases the likelihood of the CEO being promoted from inside the acquiring firm. Our evidence is consistent with the view that tournament-based incentives motivate acquiring firms’ managers to make greater efforts and take more risk that result in superior acquisition performance

Structural, optical and electrical conductivity properties of stannite Cu₂ZnSnS₄

A precursor powder was obtained from drying the solutions of a mixture of different ratios of Cu, Zn and Sn chloride and thiourea. The Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) samples were prepared from thermal decomposition of the corresponding precursors in vacuum, and were then characterized using scanning emission microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray analysis, x-ray powder diffraction and Raman scatterin

Structural properties and variable-range hopping conductivity of Cu₂SnS₃

In the present work, we investigated the elemental composition, structural and electrical properties of Cu₂SnS₃ (CTS) ternary semiconductor synthesized by the pyrolytic decomposition of the precursors in vacuu