Alien Registration- Breggia, Ottaviano A. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/25479/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Breggia, Ottaviano A. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/25479/thumbnail.jp

Magnetization driven metal - insulator transition in strongly disordered Ge:Mn magnetic semiconductors

We report on the temperature and field driven metal-insulator transition in disordered Ge:Mn magnetic semiconductors accompanied by magnetic ordering, magnetoresistance reaching thousands of percents and suppression of the extraordinary Hall effect by a magnetic field. Magnetoresistance isotherms are shown to obey a universal scaling law with a single scaling parameter depending on temperature and fabrication. We argue that the strong magnetic disorder leads to localization of charge carriers and is the origin of the unusual properties of Ge:Mn alloys.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Botulinum toxin therapy: functional silencing of salivary disorders.

Botulinum toxin (BTX) is a neurotoxic protein produced by Clostridium botulinum, an anaerobic bacterium. BTX therapy is a safe and effective treatment when used for functional silencing of the salivary glands in disorders such as sialoceles and salivary fistulas that may have a post-traumatic or post-operative origin. BTX injections can be considered in sialoceles and salivary fistulas after the failure of or together with conservative treatments (e.g. antibiotics, pressure dressings, or serial aspirations). BTX treatment has a promising role in chronic sialadenitis. BTX therapy is highly successful in the treatment of gustatory sweating (Frey\u2019s syndrome), and could be considered the gold standard treatment for this neurological disorder

Outsorcing, complementary innovations and growth

this papers studies the parallel creation of complementary upstream and downstream innovations by independent labs to sheld light on the impact of outsourced on R&D when supply contracts are incomplete. In particular, we argue tha outsourced upstream producion contributes to the emergence of innovation networks by creating a demand for upstream R&D. We then analyze under which conditions this leads to faster innovation thaan in the case of vertically integrated production relying on integraed R&D. In the presence of incomplete supply contracts, the ex-post bargaining power of upstream and downstream parties feed back to innovation. this determines whether outsourcing decisions leading to static gains from specialized production generate or not also dynamic gains in terms of faster innovation

Global Value Chains during the Great Trade Collapse: A Bullwhip Effect?

This paper analyzes the performance of global value chains during the trade collapse. To do so, it exploits a unique transaction-level dataset on French firms containing information on cross-border monthly transactions matched with data on worldwide intra-firm linkages as defined by property rights (multinational business groups, hierarchies of firms). This newly assembled dataset allows us to distinguish firm-level transactions among two alternative organizational modes of global value chains: internalization of activities (intra-group trade/trade among related parties) or establishment of supply contracts (arm’s length trade/trade among unrelated parties). After an overall assessment of the role of global value chains during the trade collapse, we document that intra-group trade in intermediates was characterized by a faster drop followed by a faster recovery than arm’s length trade. Amplified fluctuations in terms of trade elasticities by value chains have been referred to as the "bullwhip effect" and have been attributed to the adjustment of inventories within supply chains. In this paper we first confirm the existence of such an effect due to trade in intermediates, and we underline the role that different organizational modes can play in driving this adjustment.trade collapse, multinational firms, global value chains, hierarchies of firms, vertical integration.

Magneto-optical characterization of MnxGe1-x alloys obtained by ion implantation

Magneto-optical Kerr effect hysteresis loops at various wavelengths in the visible/near-infrared range have been used to characterize the magnetic properties of alloys obtained by implanting Mn ions at fixed energy in a Ge matrix. The details of the hysteresis loops reveal the presence of multiple magnetic contributions. They may be attributed to the inhomogeneous distribution of the magnetic atoms and, in particular, to the known coexistence of diluted Mn in the Ge matrix and metallic Mn-rich nanoparticles embedded in it [Phys. Rev. B 73, 195207(2006)].Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. Proceeding of the International Conference on Magnetism. Kyoto, August 20-25 200

Challenges in load balance due to renewable energy sources penetration: The possible role of energy storage technologies relative to the Italian case

With the rapid growth of the electricity produced by RES (renewable energy sources), especially those highly variable and unprogrammable (e.g. wind and solar power), the need of energy system flexibility increases significantly. Since RES currently represent a significant fraction of the power supply, their variable nature poses challenges to power grid operation, such as RES curtail and loss in global efficiency of thermoelectric plants, since they are often operated at part-load as fluctuating back-up power. In particular, thermoelectric plants recently moved their role from base-load power to fluctuating back-up power. Such a cycling operation represents a less obvious effect of grid flexibility requirement due to RES penetration. Main effect is the increment of both energetic costs, due to reduced efficiency operation, and wear-and-tear costs. This aspect is deeply analysed in reference to the Italian electricity generation mix in the period 2008-2012. Moreover, the possible coupling of energy storage systems with thermoelectric plants is highlighted as an alternative solution respect to retrofitting of existing plants

Relationship Between Nasal Cycle, Nasal Symptoms and Nasal Cytology

Background: The nasal cycle is the spontaneous congestion and decongestion of nasal mucosa that happens during the day. Classically, 4 types of nasal cycle patterns have been described: (1) classic, (2) parallel, (3) irregular, and (4) acyclic. Hypothalamus has been considered as the central regulator even if several external factors may influence its activity. Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the presence of a correlation between nasal cycle pattern, nasal cytology and nasal symptoms. Methods: Thirty healthy volunteers have been enrolled in the study. All subjects completed a Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-22 questionnaire and a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for nasal obstruction. The nasal cycle was studied by means of peak nasal inspiratory flow. Nasal cytology has been used to evaluate the presence of local nasal inflammation. Results: Nineteen subjects showed a parallel nasal cycle pattern, while 11 showed a regular one. A parallel pattern was present in 60% of asymptomatic subjects and in 67% of the symptomatic one (P = 1). VAS for nasal obstruction did not show a significant difference between the 2 patterns of the nasal cycle (P =.398). Seventeen subjects had a normal rhinocytogram, while 13 volunteers showed a neutrophilic rhinitis; 53.8% of the subjects with a neutrophilic rhinitis showed a parallel pattern, while the remaining 46.2% had a regular one. In the case of a normal cytology, 70.6% of the volunteers had a parallel pattern and 29.4% had a regular one. Differences between the 2 groups were not statistically significant (P =.575). Conclusion: Rhinitis with neutrophils seems to not influence the nasal cycle pattern. Based on the present results, the pattern of nasal cycle does not influence subjective nasal obstruction sensation

Islanding, growth mode and ordering in Si heteroepitaxy on Ge(001) substrates structured by thermal annealing

Si/Ge heteroepitaxial dots under tensile strain are grown on nanostructured Ge substrates produced by high-temperature flash heating exploiting the spontaneous faceting of the Ge(001) surface close to the onset of surface melting. A very diverse growth mode is obtained depending on the specific atomic structure and step density of nearby surface domains with different vicinal crystallographic orientations. On highly-miscut areas of the Ge(001) substrate, the critical thickness for islanding is lowered to about 5 ML, in contrast to the 11 ML reported for the flat Ge(001) surface, while on unreconstructed (1x1) domains the growth is Volmer-Weber driven. An explanation is proposed considering the diverse relative contributions of step and surface energies on misoriented substrates. In addition, we show that the bottom-up pattern of the substrate naturally formed by thermal annealing determines a spatial correlation for the dot sites