Modern Investment Management and the Prudent Man Rule

A Review of Modern Investment Management and the Prudent Man Rule by Bevis Longstret

Omnibus Taxpayers\u27 Bill of Rights Act: Taxpayers\u27 Remedy or Political Placebo?

This Note examines whether the bill, as drafted, addresses the problems which spawned it. It anticipates the bill\u27s effects on existing law and identifies areas where the bill would likely create new problems in the administration of the federal tax laws. It further identifies areas where the bill would solve problems. This Note concludes that (1) the bill\u27s audit provisions will not significantly expand taxpayer rights, and may in fact disrupt the audit process; (2) except for safeguards for installment agreements, the bill\u27s attempts to reform IRS collections procedures will not achieve its intended objectives; and (3) the bill\u27s damages provision, if properly construed by the courts, will serve to reform IRS abuses. This Note has five parts. Part I, Legislative Background, describes the bill\u27s origins and provides reasons for its introduction. Part II, IRS Audits and Investigations, analyzes the audit process from the viewpoint of both taxpayer rights and IRS administration. Specifically, Part II discusses four aspects of the audit and taxpayer investigations process: (1) audit time and place; (2) the statutory right to record interviews; (3) the power of attorney and (4) taxpayer surveillance. Part II also discusses the legal effect of the Internal Revenue Manual in light of the Administrative Procedure Act. Part III, IRS Collections Procedures, critiques three aspects of the bill, including (1) the mechanics of the lien and levy proposals, (2) installment payment provisions, and (3) uneconomical levy provisions. Part IV, \u22Damages Provision, examines the relative merits of the bill\u27s provision that permits taxpayers to obtain damages against the IRS for certain Code violations. This Part first identifies defects in the existing Code by examining Code safeguards against IRS overreaching in the lien and levy area. In addition, Part IV discusses whether the bill adequately addresses those defects. Finally, Part V summarizes the benefits and drawbacks of the bill and suggests amendments or deletions which would expand taxpayer rights while simultaneously improving IRS administration

Reduction of parasitic currents in level-set calculations with a consistent discretization of the surface-tension force for the CSF model

Parasitic currents may develop in grid-based interface simulations because of inaccurate representation of the surface forces in the discretized equations. This is due to two causes : firstly, inconsistent discretization of the surface tension force and the pressure gradient, such that the force balance is not fulfilled for a drop or a bubble at rest. Secondly, the problem is inaccurate approximation of the curvature. The least you should demand from a discretization is that it preserves a stationary solution. In this article, it is shown that this can be accomplished by rewriting the interfacial force term in the momentum equation. Using exact curvature, the exact solution for a drop is preserved to machine accuracy. In general, with this discretization, the calculation of the curvature is the only remaining source of spurious currents. Contrary to common practice for the level-set method, we stress that the curvature should be evaluated at the point on the interface whose normal cross the discretization point, and not at the gridpoint in the smeared-out region outside the interface. In 2D, a simple geometrical argument may be used to find the curvature at the interface, whereas in 3D we use extrapolation normal to the interface to create the correct curvature field in a small region around the interface

Adherence to subcutaneous interferon beta-1a treatment using an electronic injection device:a prospective open-label Scandinavian noninterventional study (the ScanSmart study)

Background: Disease modifying drugs help control the course of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS); however, good adherence is needed for long-term outcomes. Objective: To evaluate patient adherence to treatment with subcutaneous interferon beta-1a using RebiSmart® and assess injection-site reactions and treatment satisfaction. Methods: This prospective, single-arm, open-label, noninterventional multicenter Phase IV trial included disease modifying drug-experienced mobile patients with RRMS. Adherence was measured over 12 weeks. Items 13–23, 35, 37, and 38 of the Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Concerns Questionnaire (injection-site reactions and treatment satisfaction) were recorded at 12 weeks. Results: Sixty patients were recruited (mean age 43.7 [±SD 7.9] years; 83% female; mean years since multiple sclerosis diagnosis 6.7 [SD 4.5]). Adherence data were obtained in 54 patients only due to technical problems with six devices. Over 12 weeks, 89% (n=48) of patients had ≥90% adherence to treatment. Most patients experienced mild influenza-like symptoms and injection-site reactions, and global side effects were minimal. Most patients (78%) rated the convenience as the most important aspect of the device, and most experienced no or mild pain. Conclusion: RRMS patients treated with subcutaneous interferon beta-1a, administered with RebiSmart, demonstrated generally good adherence, and the treatment was generally well tolerated

On the early and developed stages of surface condensation: competition mechanism between interfacial and condensate bulk thermal resistances

Financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51406205), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (3142021) and the Engineering and Physics Science Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK (EP/L001233/1) are acknowledged.Financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51406205), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (3142021) and the Engineering and Physics Science Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK (EP/L001233/1) are acknowledged.Financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51406205), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (3142021) and the Engineering and Physics Science Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK (EP/L001233/1) are acknowledged.We use molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the early and developed stages of surface condensation. We find that the liquid-vapor and solid-liquid interfacial thermal resistances depend on the properties of solid and fluid, which are time-independent, while the condensate bulk thermal resistance depends on the condensate thickness, which is time-dependent. There exists intrinsic competition between the interfacial and condensate bulk thermal resistances in timeline and the resultant total thermal resistance determines the condensation intensity for a given vapor-solid temperature difference. We reveal the competition mechanism that the interfacial thermal resistance dominates at the onset of condensation and holds afterwards while the condensate bulk thermal resistance gradually takes over with condensate thickness growing. The weaker the solid-liquid bonding, the later the takeover occurs. This competition mechanism suggests that only when the condensate bulk thermal resistance is reduced after it takes over the domination can the condensation be effectively intensified. We propose a unified theoretical model for the thermal resistance analysis by making dropwise condensation equivalent to filmwise condensation. We further find that near a critical point (contact angle being ca. 153°) the bulk thermal resistance has the least opportunity to take over the domination while away from it the probability increases.Financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51406205), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (3142021) and the Engineering and Physics Science Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK (EP/L001233/1) are acknowledged

Structural instrumentation and monitoring of the Block Island Offshore Wind Farm

publishedVersio

In Vitro and In Vivo Performance of Plum (Prunus domestica L.) Pollen from the Anthers Stored at Distinct Temperatures for Different Periods

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of different storage periods and temperatures on pollen viability in vitro and in vivo in plum genotypes ‘Valerija’, ‘Čačanska Lepotica’ and ‘Valjevka’. In vitro pollen viability was tested at day 0 (fresh dry pollen) and after 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of storage at four different temperatures (4, −20, −80 and −196◦C), and in vivo after 12 months of storage at distinct temperatures. In vitro germination and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) staining methods were used to test pollen viability, while aniline blue staining was used for observing in vivo pollen tube growth. Fresh pollen germination and viability ranged from 42.35 to 63.79% (‘Valjevka’ and ‘Čačanska Lepotica’, respectively) and 54.58 to 62.15%, (‘Valjevka’ and ‘Valerija’, respectively). With storage at 4◦C, pollen viability and germination decreased over the period, with the lowest value after 12 months of storage. Pollen germination and viability for the other storage temperatures (−20, −80 and −196◦C) were higher than 30% by the end of the 12 months. Pollination using pollen stored at 4◦C showed that pollen tube growth mostly ended in the lower part of the style. With the other storage temperatures, pollen tube growth was similar, ranging between 50 and 100% of the pistils with pollen tubes penetrated into the nucellus of the ovule in the genotype ‘Čačanska Lepotica’. The results of these findings will have implications for plum pollen breeding and conservation. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Experimental Study of Incipient Motion in Mixed-size Sediment

Transport rates of five sediments were measured in a laboratory flume. Three of these sediments had the same mean size, the same size distribution shape, and different values of grain size distribution standard deviation. The critical shear stress for incipient motion of the individual size fractions within these sediments was estimated as that shear stress that produced a small dimensionless transport rate. The sorting of the sediment mixture had little effect on the critical shear stress of individual fractions, once the median size (D50) of the mixture and a fraction\u27s relative size (Di/D50) are accounted for. Our data, combined with previously published data, show a remarkably consistent relation between the critical shear stress of individual fractions and the fraction\u27s relative grain size, despite a broad variation in the available data of mixture sorting, grain size distribution shape, mean grain size, and grain shape. All fractions in a size mixture begin moving at close to the same value of bed shear stress during steady state transport conditions. This result is apparently true for transport systems where the transport rates of individual fractions are determined solely by the flow and bed sediment (recirculating systems), as well as for systems where the fractional transport rates are imposed on the system (feed systems). This equivalence in initial-motion results is important because natural transporting systems often show attributes of both types of behavior in an unknown combination