1,333 research outputs found
Factors Influencing Internet Gamblersâ Use of Offshore Online Gambling Sites: Policy Implications
Gambling is a heavily regulated activity, but policies are difficult to enforce in the online context. While governments may attempt to restrict access to licensed providers only, consumers can access offshore sites, creating a potential risk of harm and reducing taxation. This article examines how consumers select Internet gambling sites, and the characteristics of those who use offshore as opposed to domestic sites. Pastâmonth Australian Internetâgamblers (Nâ=â1,001, 57.2 percent male) completed an online survey. Participants responded to questions about their online gambling, including use of offshore sites, reasons for site selection, awareness of regulations, preferences for regulated sites, and gamblingârelated problems. Offshore gamblers (52.7 percent) were a distinct demographic cohort, and were more highly involved in online gambling. Lack of awareness of gambling regulation did not sufficiently explain use of offshore gambling sites; rather, both groups had a relatively low concern for where a site was regulated, choosing sites instead based on ease of use, and cues that they were designed for gamblers in the advertised jurisdiction. Use of offshore gambling sites may be discouraged by focusing on the benefits of domestic sites and ensuring that these can provide a good consumer experience
Formation mechanism of electrical discharge TiC-Fe composite coatings
Comparison of electric discharge (ED) processed single deposit and continuum TiC-Fe cermet coatings, formed from a sacrificial powder metallurgy TiC tool electrode at negative polarity, on 304 stainless steel, provided insight into the ED coating (EDC) formation mechanism. A deposit from a single spark event was dominated by TiC, phase separated from a âŒ2 wt% Fe matrix, with strongly aligned grains and banded microstructure, indicative of solidification from the coating/substrate interface. Conversely, a continuum coating, subjected to âŒ200 spark events per location, exhibited a more complex, banded microstructure, with a mixture of equiaxed and columnar TiC grains within a âŒ30 wt% Fe-based matrix, along with some concentrations of carbon from the oil dielectric. It is considered that each sparking event remelts previously solidified coating material, with or without further TiC particle incorporation, leading to gradual TiC dilution and the development of a TiC-Fe composite coating with increasing levels of substrate material forming the matrix
Healthcare worker influenza immunization vaccinate or mask policy: Strategies for cost effective implementation and subsequent reductions in staff absenteeism due to illness
AbstractBackgroundA new policy requiring staff in clinical areas to vaccinate or wear a mask was implemented in British Columbia (BC) in the 2012/13 winter. This review assessed the impact of the policy on absenteeism in health care workers.MethodsA retrospective cohort study of full-time HCW that worked prior to and during the 2012/13 influenza season in a health authority in BC. The rate of absenteeism due to all cause illness was compared between vaccinated and unvaccinated staff controlling for behaviors outside influenza season.ResultsOf the 10079 HCW, 77% were vaccinated. By comparison to absenteeism rates in the pre-influenza season, unvaccinated staff in winter had twice the increase in absenteeism due to all-cause illness than vaccinated staff.ConclusionAfter controlling for baseline differences between those vaccinated and unvaccinated, influenza vaccination was associated with reduced absenteeism, saving the Health Authority substantial money. Having regular staff in attendance increases the quality of care
The Christiansen Effect in Saturn's narrow dusty rings and the spectral identification of clumps in the F ring
Stellar occultations by Saturn's rings observed with the Visual and Infrared
Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft reveal that dusty
features such as the F ring and the ringlets in the Encke and the Laplace Gaps
have distinctive infrared transmission spectra. These spectra show a narrow
optical depth minimum at wavelengths around 2.87 microns. This minimum is
likely due to the Christiansen Effect, a reduction in the extinction of small
particles when their (complex) refractive index is close to that of the
surrounding medium. Simple Mie-scattering models demonstrate that the strength
of this opacity dip is sensitive to the size distribution of particles between
1 and 100 microns across. Furthermore, the spatial resolution of the
occultation data is sufficient to reveal variations in the transmission spectra
within and among these rings. For example, in both the Encke Gap ringlets and F
ring, the opacity dip weakens with increasing local optical depth, which is
consistent with the larger particles being concentrated near the cores of these
rings. The strength of the opacity dip varies most dramatically within the F
ring; certain compact regions of enhanced optical depth lack an opacity dip and
therefore appear to have a greatly reduced fraction of grains in the few-micron
size range.Such spectrally-identifiable structures probably represent a subset
of the compact optically-thick clumps observed by other Cassini instruments.
These variations in the ring's particle size distribution can provide new
insights into the processes of grain aggregation, disruption and transport
within dusty rings. For example, the unusual spectral properties of the F-ring
clumps could perhaps be ascribed to small grains adhering onto the surface of
larger particles in regions of anomalously low velocity dispersion.Comment: 42 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Icarus. A few small
typographical errors fixed to match correction in proof
Linguistic and statistically derived features for cause of death prediction from verbal autopsy text
Automatic Text Classification (ATC) is an emerging technology with economic importance given the unprecedented growth of text data. This paper reports on work in progress to develop methods for predicting Cause of Death from Verbal Autopsy (VA) documents recommended for use in low-income countries by the World Health Organisation. VA documents contain both coded data and open narrative. The task is formulated as a Text Classification problem and explores various combinations of linguistic and statistical approaches to determine how these may improve on the standard bag-of-words approach using a dataset of over 6400 VA documents that were manually annotated with cause of death. We demonstrate that a significant improvement of prediction accuracy can be obtained through a novel combination of statistical and linguistic features derived from the VA text. The paper explores the methods by which ATC may leads to improved accuracy in Cause of Death prediction
Comparison of proton irradiated P-channel and N-channel CCDs
Charge transfer inefficiency and dark current effects are compared for e2v technologies plc. p-channel and n-channel CCDs, both irradiated with protons. The p-channel devices, prior to their irradiation, exhibited twice the dark current and considerable worse charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) than a typical n-channel. The radiation induced increase in dark current was found to be comparable with n-channel CCDs, and its temperature dependence suggest the divacancy is the dominant source of thermally generated dark current pre and post irradiation. The factor of improvement in tolerance to radiation induced CTI varied by between 15 and 25 for serial CTI and 8 and 3 for parallel CTI, between â70 °C and â110 °C respectively
Singularly Perturbed Monotone Systems and an Application to Double Phosphorylation Cycles
The theory of monotone dynamical systems has been found very useful in the
modeling of some gene, protein, and signaling networks. In monotone systems,
every net feedback loop is positive. On the other hand, negative feedback loops
are important features of many systems, since they are required for adaptation
and precision. This paper shows that, provided that these negative loops act at
a comparatively fast time scale, the main dynamical property of (strongly)
monotone systems, convergence to steady states, is still valid. An application
is worked out to a double-phosphorylation ``futile cycle'' motif which plays a
central role in eukaryotic cell signaling.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, corrected typos, references remove
Origin and Evolution of Saturn's Ring System
The origin and long-term evolution of Saturn's rings is still an unsolved
problem in modern planetary science. In this chapter we review the current
state of our knowledge on this long-standing question for the main rings (A,
Cassini Division, B, C), the F Ring, and the diffuse rings (E and G). During
the Voyager era, models of evolutionary processes affecting the rings on long
time scales (erosion, viscous spreading, accretion, ballistic transport, etc.)
had suggested that Saturn's rings are not older than 100 My. In addition,
Saturn's large system of diffuse rings has been thought to be the result of
material loss from one or more of Saturn's satellites. In the Cassini era, high
spatial and spectral resolution data have allowed progress to be made on some
of these questions. Discoveries such as the ''propellers'' in the A ring, the
shape of ring-embedded moonlets, the clumps in the F Ring, and Enceladus' plume
provide new constraints on evolutionary processes in Saturn's rings. At the
same time, advances in numerical simulations over the last 20 years have opened
the way to realistic models of the rings's fine scale structure, and progress
in our understanding of the formation of the Solar System provides a
better-defined historical context in which to understand ring formation. All
these elements have important implications for the origin and long-term
evolution of Saturn's rings. They strengthen the idea that Saturn's rings are
very dynamical and rapidly evolving, while new arguments suggest that the rings
could be older than previously believed, provided that they are regularly
renewed. Key evolutionary processes, timescales and possible scenarios for the
rings's origin are reviewed in the light of tComment: Chapter 17 of the book ''Saturn After Cassini-Huygens'' Saturn from
Cassini-Huygens, Dougherty, M.K.; Esposito, L.W.; Krimigis, S.M. (Ed.) (2009)
537-57
The speed of corneal epithelial wound healing
We propose a reaction-diffusion model of the mechanisms involved in the healing of corneal surface wounds. The model focuses on the stimulus for increased mitotic and migratory activity, specifically the role of epidermal growth factor. We determine an analytic approximation for the speed of travelling wave solutions of the model and verify the result numerically. The predicted speed compares very well with experimentally measured healing rates
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