Money Laundering and Central Bank Governance in The European Union

Dirty money is often a by-product or a symptom of political corruption in the jurisdictions in which it originates. It can also spread corruption and erode democracy on its journey to its final destination. This typically involves multiple jurisdictions and is the reason why it is so hard to detect. Recently, a series of money laundering scandals have highlighted weaknesses in the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) framework of the European Union (EU), the implementation of which remains the responsibility of Member States. The paper argues that EU’s defences against money laundering have been weakened partly reflecting a little-known erosion in the independence of Member State central banks, which are often the AML supervisors. It puts forward a number of new proposals to strengthen the governance and AML/CFT implementation in the EU

Leaf epidermal profiling as a phenotyping tool for DNA methylation mutants

Phenotypic evaluation of epigenetic mutants is mainly based on the analysis of plant growth and morphological features. However, there are cellular level changes that are not visible to the naked eye and require analysis with higher resolution techniques. In this study, we carried out a phenotypic characterisation of several Arabidopsis thaliana hypomethylation mutants by quantitative image analysis combined with flow cytometry. This phenotyping approach permitted identification of abnormalities at the cellular level in mutants with wild-type morphology at the organ level. Morphometry of adaxial leaf epidermis revealed variations in the size and number of pavement cells, and the density and distribution of stomata in the analysed second rosette leaves from the mutants studied. A direct correlation between DNA ploidy status and leaf pavement cell size in wild type and mutant leaves was observed. Recognition of hidden phenotypic variations could facilitate the identification of key genetic loci underlying the phenotypes caused by modifications of DNA methylation. Thus, this study outlines an easy and fast phenotyping strategy that can be used as a reliable tool for characterisation of epigenetic mutants at the cellular level

Design, Analysis, and Applications of Iterative Methods for Solving Nonlinear Systems

In this chapter, we present an overview of some multipoint iterative methods for solving nonlinear systems obtained by using different techniques such as composition of known methods, weight function procedure, and pseudo-composition, etc. The dynamical study of these iterative schemes provides us valuable information about their stability and reliability. A numerical test on a specific problem coming from chemistry is performed to compare the described methods with classical ones and to confirm the theoretical results

Unintended and accidental medical radiation exposures in radiology: guidelines on investigation and prevention

This paper sets out guidelines for managing radiation exposure incidents involving patients in diagnostic and interventional radiology. The work is based on collation of experiences from representatives of international and national organizations for radiologists, medical physicists, radiographers, regulators, and equipment manufacturers, derived from an International Atomic Energy Agency Technical Meeting. More serious overexposures can result in skin doses high enough to produce tissue reactions, in interventional procedures and computed tomography, most notably from perfusion studies. A major factor involved has been deficiencies in training of staff in operation of equipment and optimization techniques. The use of checklists and time outs before procedures commence, and dose alerts when critical levels are reached during procedures can provide safeguards to reduce risks of these effects occurring. However, unintended and accidental overexposures resulting in relatively small additional doses can take place in any diagnostic or interventional X-ray procedure and it is important to learn from errors that occur, as these may lead to increased risks of stochastic effects. Such events may involve the wrong examinations, procedural errors, or equipment faults. Guidance is given on prevention, investigation and dose calculation for radiology exposure incidents within healthcare facilities. Responsibilities should be clearly set out in formal policies, and procedures should be in place to ensure that root causes are identified and deficiencies addressed. When an overexposure of a patient or an unintended exposure of a foetus occurs, the foetal, organ, skin and/or effective dose may be estimated from exposure data. When doses are very low, generic values for the examination may be sufficient, but a full assessment of doses to all exposed organs and tissues may sometimes be required. The use of general terminology to describe risks from stochastic effects is recommended rather than calculation of numerical values, as these are misleading when applied to individuals

A family of parametric schemes of arbitrary even order for solving nonlinear models

[EN] Many problems related to gas dynamics, heat transfer or chemical reactions are modeled by means of partial differential equations that usually are solved by using approximation techniques. When they are transformed in nonlinear systems of equations via a discretization process, this system is big-sized and high-order iterative methods are specially useful. In this paper, we construct a new family of parametric iterative methods with arbitrary even order, based on the extension of Ostrowski' and Chun's methods for solving nonlinear systems. Some elements of the proposed class are known methods meanwhile others are new schemes with good properties. Some numerical tests confirm the theoretical results and allow us to compare the numerical results obtained by applying new methods and known ones on academical examples. In addition, we apply one of our methods for approximating the solution of a heat conduction problem described by a parabolic partial differential equation.This research was partially supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad MTM2014-52016-C02-2-P and FONDOCYT 2014-1C1-088 Republica Dominicana.Cordero Barbero, A.; Torregrosa Sánchez, JR.; Vassileva, MP. (2017). A family of parametric schemes of arbitrary even order for solving nonlinear models. Journal of Mathematical Chemistry. 55(7):1443-1460. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10910-016-0723-7S14431460557R. Escobedo, L.L. Bonilla, Numerical methods for quantum drift-diffusion equation in semiconductor phisics. Math. Chem. 40(1), 3–13 (2006)S.J. Preece, J. Villingham, A.C. King, Chemical clock reactions: the effect of precursor consumtion. Math. Chem. 26, 47–73 (1999)H. Montazeri, F. Soleymani, S. Shateyi, S.S. Motsa, On a new method for computing the numerical solution of systems of nonlinear equations. J. Appl. Math. 2012 ID. 751975, 15 pages (2012)J.L. Hueso, E. Martínez, C. Teruel, Convergence, effiency and dinamimics of new fourth and sixth order families of iterative methods for nonlinear systems. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 275, 412–420 (2015)J.R. Sharma, H. Arora, Efficient Jarratt-like methods for solving systems of nonlinear equations. Calcolo 51, 193–210 (2014)X. Wang, T. Zhang, W. Qian, M. Teng, Seventh-order derivative-free iterative method for solving nonlinear systems. Numer. Algor. 70, 545–558 (2015)J.R. Sharma, H. Arora, On efficient weighted-Newton methods for solving systems of nonlinear equations. Appl. Math. Comput. 222, 497–506 (2013)A. Cordero, J.G. Maimó, J.R. Torregrosa, M.P. Vassileva, Solving nonlinear problems by Ostrowski-Chun type parametric families. J. Math. Chem. 53, 430–449 (2015)A.M. Ostrowski, Solution of equations and systems of equations (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New York, 1964)C. Chun, Construction of Newton-like iterative methods for solving nonlinear equations. Numer. Math. 104, 297–315 (2006)A. Cordero, J.L. Hueso, E. Martínez, J.R. Torregrosa, A modified Newton-Jarratt’s composition. Numer. Algor. 55, 87–99 (2010)J.M. Ortega, W.C. Rheinboldt, Iterative solution of nonlinear equations in several variables (Academic, New York, 1970)C. Hermite, Sur la formule dinterpolation de Lagrange. Reine Angew. Math. 84, 70–79 (1878)A. Cordero, J.R. Torregrosa, Variants of Newton’s method using fifth-order quadrature formulas. Appl. Math. Comput. 190, 686–698 (2007

Motivational Social Visualizations for Personalized E-Learning

A large number of educational resources is now available on the Web to support both regular classroom learning and online learning. However, the abundance of available content produces at least two problems: how to help students find the most appropriate resources, and how to engage them into using these resources and benefiting from them. Personalized and social learning have been suggested as potential methods for addressing these problems. Our work presented in this paper attempts to combine the ideas of personalized and social learning. We introduce Progressor + , an innovative Web-based interface that helps students find the most relevant resources in a large collection of self-assessment questions and programming examples. We also present the results of a classroom study of the Progressor +  in an undergraduate class. The data revealed the motivational impact of the personalized social guidance provided by the system in the target context. The interface encouraged students to explore more educational resources and motivated them to do some work ahead of the course schedule. The increase in diversity of explored content resulted in improving students’ problem solving success. A deeper analysis of the social guidance mechanism revealed that it is based on the leading behavior of the strong students, who discovered the most relevant resources and created trails for weaker students to follow. The study results also demonstrate that students were more engaged with the system: they spent more time in working with self-assessment questions and annotated examples, attempted more questions, and achieved higher success rates in answering them

Preparation of ZnO nanowires by electrochemical deposition

AbstractThis work reports the results from the synthesis of nanostructured ZnO thin films via electrochemical deposition on glass substrates coated with F doped SnO2. The influence of the deposition parameters on the properties of the obtained ZnO films was studied. The Raman spectra of the ZnO films contain the typical for ZnO vibrational bands. The scanning electron microscope micrographs demonstrate that the films consist of ZnO nanowires. Growing of ZnO in the conditions with addition of H2O2 in lower concentration and without flowing air results in larger grain formation. The ZnO layers demonstrate high diffuse reflection

Design and multidimensional extension of iterative methods for solving nonlinear problems

[EN] In this paper, a three-step iterative method with sixth-order local convergence for approximating the solution of a nonlinear system is presented. From Ostrowski¿s scheme adding one step of Newton with ¿frozen¿ derivative and by using a divided difference operator we construct an iterative scheme of order six for solving nonlinear systems. The computational efficiency of the new method is compared with some known ones, obtaining good conclusions. Numerical comparisons are made with other existing methods, on standard nonlinear systems and the classical 1D-Bratu problem by transforming it in a nonlinear system by using finite differences. From this numerical examples, we confirm the theoretical results and show the performance of the presented scheme.This research was partially supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad MTM2014-52016-C2-2-P and FONDOCYT 2014-1C1-088 Republica Dominicana.Artidiello, S.; Cordero Barbero, A.; Torregrosa Sánchez, JR.; Vassileva, MP. (2017). Design and multidimensional extension of iterative methods for solving nonlinear problems. Applied Mathematics and Computation. 293:194-203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2016.08.034S19420329

Solving Nonlinear Transcendental Equations by Iterative Methods with Conformable Derivatives: A General Approach

[EN] In recent years, some Newton-type schemes with noninteger derivatives have been proposed for solving nonlinear transcendental equations by using fractional derivatives (Caputo and Riemann-Liouville) and conformable derivatives. It has also been shown that the methods with conformable derivatives improve the performance of classical schemes. In this manuscript, we design point-to-point higher-order conformable Newton-type and multipoint procedures for solving nonlinear equations and propose a general technique to deduce the conformable version of any classical iterative method with integer derivatives. A convergence analysis is given and the expected orders of convergence are obtained. As far as we know, these are the first optimal conformable schemes, beyond the conformable Newton procedure, that have been developed. The numerical results support the theory and show that the new schemes improve the performance of the original methods in some aspects. Additionally, the dependence on initial guesses is analyzed, and these schemes show good stability properties.Candelario, G.; Cordero Barbero, A.; Torregrosa Sánchez, JR.; Vassileva, MP. (2023). Solving Nonlinear Transcendental Equations by Iterative Methods with Conformable Derivatives: A General Approach. Mathematics. 11(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/math11112568111

Two weighted-order classes of iterative root-finding methods

In this paper we design, by using the weight function technique, two families of iterative schemes with order of convergence eight. These weight functions depend on one, two and three variables and they are used in the second and third step of the iterative expression. Dynamics on polynomial and non-polynomial functions is analysed and they are applied on the problem of preliminary orbit determination by using a modified Gauss method. Finally, some standard test functions are to check the reliability of the proposed schemes and allow us to compare them with other known methods.This research was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia MTM2011-28636-C02-02 and FONDOCYT 2011-1-B1-33 Republica Dominicana.Artidiello Moreno, SDJ.; Cordero Barbero, A.; Torregrosa Sánchez, JR.; Vassileva, M. (2015). Two weighted-order classes of iterative root-finding methods. International Journal of Computer Mathematics. 92(9):1790-1805. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207160.2014.887201S1790180592