The economics of debt clearing mechanisms

We examine the evolution of decentralized clearinghouse mechanisms from the 13th to the 18th century; in particular, we explore the clearing of non- or limitedtradable debts like bills of exchange. We construct a theoretical model of these clearinghouse mechanisms, similar to the models in the theoretical matching literature, and show that specific decentralized multilateral clearing algorithms known as rescontre, skontrieren or virement des parties used by merchants were efficient in specific historical contexts. We can explain both the evolutionary self-organizing emergence of late medieval and early modern fairs, and its robustness during the 17th and 18th century

Search for electron antineutrino appearance in a long-baseline muon antineutrino beam

Electron antineutrino appearance is measured by the T2K experiment in an accelerator-produced antineutrino beam, using additional neutrino beam operation to constrain parameters of the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) mixing matrix. T2K observes 15 candidate electron antineutrino events with a background expectation of 9.3 events. Including information from the kinematic distribution of observed events, the hypothesis of no electron antineutrino appearance is disfavored with a significance of 2.40σ and no discrepancy between data and PMNS predictions is found. A complementary analysis that introduces an additional free parameter which allows non-PMNS values of electron neutrino and antineutrino appearance also finds no discrepancy between data and PMNS predictions

Search for neutral-current induced single photon production at the ND280 near detector in T2K

Neutrino neutral-current (NC) induced single photon production is a sub-leading order process for accelerator-based neutrino beam experiments including T2K. It is, however, an important process to understand because it is a background for electron (anti)neutrino appearance oscillation experiments. Here, we performed the first search of this process below 1 GeV using the fine-grained detector at the T2K ND280 off-axis near detector. By reconstructing single photon kinematics from electron–positron pairs, we achieved 95% pure gamma ray sample from $5.738\times {10}^{20}$ protons-on-targets neutrino mode data. We do not find positive evidence of NC induced single photon production in this sample. We set the model-dependent upper limit on the cross-section for this process, at $0.114\times {10}^{-38}$ cm2 (90% C.L.) per nucleon, using the J-PARC off-axis neutrino beam with an average energy of $\left\langle {E}_{\nu }\right\rangle \sim 0.6$ GeV. This is the first limit on this process below 1 GeV which is important for current and future oscillation experiments looking for electron neutrino appearance oscillation signals

Measurements of (nu)over-bar(mu) and (nu)over-bar(mu) + nu(mu) charged-current cross-sections without detected pions or protons on water and hydrocarbon at a mean anti-neutrino energy of 0.86 GeV

International audienceWe report measurements of the flux-integrated |$\overline{\nu}_\mu$| and |$\overline{\nu}_\mu+\nu_\mu$| charged-current cross-sections on water and hydrocarbon targets using the T2K anti-neutrino beam with a mean beam energy of 0.86 GeV. The signal is defined as the (anti-)neutrino charged-current interaction with one induced |$\mu^\pm$| and no detected charged pion or proton. These measurements are performed using a new WAGASCI module recently added to the T2K setup in combination with the INGRID Proton Module. The phase space of muons is restricted to the high-detection efficiency region, |$p_{\mu}>400~{\rm MeV}/c$| and |$\theta_{\mu}200~{\rm MeV}/c$|⁠, |$\theta_{\pi}600~{\rm MeV}/c$|⁠, |$\theta_{\rm p}<70^{\circ}$| is required. In this paper, both the |$\overline{\nu}_\mu$| cross-sections and |$\overline{\nu}_\mu+\nu_\mu$| cross-sections on water and hydrocarbon targets and their ratios are provided by using the D’Agostini unfolding method. The results of the integrated |$\overline{\nu}_\mu$| cross-section measurements over this phase space are |$\sigma_{\rm H_{2}O}=(1.082\pm0.068(\rm stat.)^{+0.145}_{-0.128}(\rm syst.)) \times 10^{-39}\,{\rm cm^{2} / nucleon}$|⁠, |$\sigma_{\rm CH}=(1.096\pm0.054(\rm stat.)^{+0.132}_{-0.117}(\rm syst.)) \times 10^{-39}\,{\rm cm^{2} / nucleon}$|⁠, and |$\sigma_{\rm H_{2}O}/\sigma_{\rm CH} = 0.987\pm0.078(\rm stat.)^{+0.093}_{-0.090}(\rm syst.)$|⁠. The |$\overline{\nu}_\mu+\nu_\mu$| cross-section is |$\sigma_{\rm H_{2}O} = (1.155\pm0.064(\rm stat.)^{+0.148}_{-0.129}(\rm syst.)) \times 10^{-39}\,{\rm cm^{2} / nucleon}$|⁠, |$\sigma_{\rm CH}=(1.159\pm0.049(\rm stat.)^{+0.129}_{-0.115}(\rm syst.)) \times 10^{-39}\,{\rm cm^{2} / nucleon}$|⁠, and |$\sigma_{\rm H_{2}O}/\sigma_{\rm CH}=0.996\pm0.069(\rm stat.)^{+0.083}_{-0.078}(\rm syst.)$|⁠

WSES guidelines for management of Clostridium difficile infection in surgical patients

In the last two decades there have been dramatic changes in the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), with increases in incidence and severity of disease in many countries worldwide. The incidence of CDI has also increased in surgical patients. Optimization of management of C difficile, has therefore become increasingly urgent. An international multidisciplinary panel of experts prepared evidenced-based World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) guidelines for management of CDI in surgical patients.Peer reviewe