An intelligent contract editor

Architects have computer tools that complement their specialist knowledge, as do engineers. Notaries, however, do not. This is in spite of the work that has been done in formally modelling contracts, the basic work of notaries being contract drafting. We are currently working on a solution aimed at aiding and complementing notaries’ expertise. This will take the form of adding in to MS Word, the document processing program of choice of local notaries. Some of the functionality envisioned includes cross-referencing with the laws of Malta, automatically identifying parties involved in a clause, tracking contract changes and conflict detection.peer-reviewe

Unexorcized ghost in DGP brane world

The braneworld model of Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati realizes the self-accelerating universe. However, it is known that this cosmological solution contains a spin-2 ghost. We study the possibility of avoiding the appearance of the ghost by slightly modifying the model, introducing the second brane. First we consider a simple model without stabilization of the separation of the brane. By changing the separation between the branes, we find we can erase the spin-2 ghost. However, this can be done only at the expense of the appearance of a spin-0 ghost instead. We discuss why these two different types of ghosts are correlated. Then, we examine a model with stabilization of the brane separation. Even in this case, we find that the correlation between spin-0 and spin-2 ghosts remains. As a result we find we cannot avoid the appearance of ghost by two-branes model.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur

A new type of temperature driven reorientation transition in magnetic thin films

We present a new type of temperature driven spin reorientation transition (SRT) in thin films. It can occur when the lattice and the shape anisotropy favor different easy directions of the magnetization. Due to different temperature dependencies of the two contributions the effective anisotropy may change its sign and thus the direction of the magnetization as a function of temperature may change. Contrary to the well-known reorientation transition caused by competing surface and bulk anisotropy contributions the reorientation that we discuss is also found in film systems with a uniform lattice anisotropy. The results of our theoretical model study may have experimental relevance for film systems with positive lattice anisotropy, as e.g. thin iron films grown on copper.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in EPJ

Analysis of the Neutralino System in Three--Body Leptonic Decays of Neutralinos

Neutralinos $\tilde{\chi}^0$ in supersymmetric theories, the spin--1/2 Majorana--type superpartners of the U(1) and SU(2) neutral electroweak gauge bosons and SU(2) neutral Higgs bosons, are expected to be among light supersymmetric particles so that they can be produced copiouslyvia direct pair production and/or from cascade decays of other sparticles such as sleptons at the planned Large Hadron Collider and the prospective International Linear Collider. Considering the prospects of having both highly polarized neutralinos and possibility of reconstructing their decay rest frames, we provide a systematic investigation of the three--body leptonic decays of the neutralinos in the minimal supersymmetric standard model and demonstrate alternative ways for probing the Majorana nature of the neutralinos and CP violation in the neutralino system.Comment: Version to appear in Eur.Phys.J.

Computing earnings per share: unofficial accounting interpretations of APB Opinion no. 15

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1601/thumbnail.jp

On kaonic hydrogen. Quantum field theoretic and relativistic covariant approach

We study kaonic hydrogen, the bound K^-p state A_(Kp). Within a quantum field theoretic and relativistic covariant approach we derive the energy level displacement of the ground state of kaonic hydrogen in terms of the amplitude of K^-p scattering for arbitrary relative momenta. The amplitude of low-energy K^-p scattering near threshold is defined by the contributions of three resonances Lambda(1405), Lambda(1800) and Sigma^0(1750) and a smooth elastic background. The amplitudes of inelastic channels of low-energy K^-p scattering fit experimental data on near threshold behaviour of the cross sections and the experimental data by the DEAR Collaboration. We use the soft-pion technique (leading order in Chiral Perturbation Theory) for the calculation of the partial width of the radiative decay of pionic hydrogen A_(pi p) -> n + gamma and the Panofsky ratio. The theoretical prediction for the Panofsky ratio agrees well with experimental data. We apply the soft-kaon technique (leading order in Chiral Perturbation Theory) to the calculation of the partial widths of radiative decays of kaonic hydrogen A_(Kp) -> Lambda^0 + gamma and A_(Kp) -> Sigma^0 + gamma. We show that the contribution of these decays to the width of the energy level of the ground state of kaonic hydrogen is less than 1%.Comment: 33 pages, 1 figure, latex, References are adde

The Role of Chest Imaging in Patient Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multinational Consensus Statement From the Fleischner Society.

With more than 900,000 confirmed cases worldwide and nearly 50,000 deaths during the first three months of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as an unprecedented healthcare crisis. The spread of COVID-19 has been heterogeneous, resulting in some regions having sporadic transmission and relatively few hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and others having community transmission that has led to overwhelming numbers of severe cases. For these regions, healthcare delivery has been disrupted and compromised by critical resource constraints in diagnostic testing, hospital beds, ventilators, and healthcare workers who have fallen ill to the virus exacerbated by shortages of personal protective equipment. While mild cases mimic common upper respiratory viral infections, respiratory dysfunction becomes the principal source of morbidity and mortality as the disease advances. Thoracic imaging with chest radiography (CXR) and computed tomography (CT) are key tools for pulmonary disease diagnosis and management, but their role in the management of COVID-19 has not been considered within the multivariable context of the severity of respiratory disease, pre-test probability, risk factors for disease progression, and critical resource constraints. To address this deficit, a multidisciplinary panel comprised principally of radiologists and pulmonologists from 10 countries with experience managing COVID-19 patients across a spectrum of healthcare environments evaluated the utility of imaging within three scenarios representing varying risk factors, community conditions, and resource constraints. Fourteen key questions, corresponding to 11 decision points within the three scenarios and three additional clinical situations, were rated by the panel based upon the anticipated value of the information that thoracic imaging would be expected to provide. The results were aggregated, resulting in five main and three additional recommendations intended to guide medical practitioners in the use of CXR and CT in the management of COVID-19

Expression and prognostic impact of lncRNAs in acute myeloid leukemia

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides, located within the intergenic stretches or overlapping antisense transcripts of protein coding genes. LncRNAs are involved in numerous biological roles including imprinting, epigenetic regulation, apoptosis, and cell cycle. To determine whether lncRNAs are associated with clinical features and recurrent mutations in older patients (aged \u3e/=60 y) with cytogenetically normal (CN) acute myeloid leukemia (AML), we evaluated lncRNA expression in 148 untreated older CN-AML cases using a custom microarray platform. An independent set of 71 untreated older patients with CN-AML was used to validate the outcome scores using RNA sequencing. Distinctive lncRNA profiles were found associated with selected mutations, such as internal tandem duplications in the FLT3 gene (FLT3-ITD) and mutations in the NPM1, CEBPA, IDH2, ASXL1, and RUNX1 genes. Using the lncRNAs most associated with event-free survival in a training cohort of 148 older patients with CN-AML, we derived a lncRNA score composed of 48 lncRNAs. Patients with an unfavorable compared with favorable lncRNA score had a lower complete response (CR) rate [P \u3c 0.001, odds ratio = 0.14, 54% vs. 89%], shorter disease-free survival (DFS) [P \u3c 0.001, hazard ratio (HR) = 2.88] and overall survival (OS) (P \u3c 0.001, HR = 2.95). The validation set analyses confirmed these results (CR, P = 0.03; DFS, P = 0.009; OS, P = 0.009). Multivariable analyses for CR, DFS, and OS identified the lncRNA score as an independent marker for outcome. In conclusion, lncRNA expression in AML is closely associated with recurrent mutations. A small subset of lncRNAs is correlated strongly with treatment response and survival