Implementation of smart contract in the Liquefied Natural Gas trade

In this Bachelor thesis, we will study all the key aspects for the implementation of a smart contract for a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) trade. As starting point, a brief introduction about LNG is written to realise the specificities of the commodity traded. Then, smart contracts will be presented as well as its fundamental goal and the key concerns about how English law is regulating them. Furthermore, we will learn that a smart contract, to respect legal requirements, is more eligible to work based on a “normal” contract. Therefore, an analysis will be conducted to choose a contract being the most suitable for a trade and fitting the best for the implementation phase. By chance, professional contracts written by large companies in the domain are available on internet. Once the result of the analysis and comparison allows us to choose one contract, it needs to be shaped and formatted in a way to make it clear and easy to understand for a programmer to code it. The tool which enables this process is flowchart, which shows how contracts are predicting every situation and how clauses are interconnected. In addition, a deep understanding and explanation of the contract will allow us to learn in depth how the deal is conducted and important characteristics to take into consideration about LNG. Smart contracts are mostly implemented on blockchain or at least platforms using blockchain technology which meant we could not make us escape the subject of blockchain technology. Therefore, we will have to first gain basic knowledge and note the difference between private and public blockchain. The next step will be to explore the question of which blockchain or platform the smart contract would be run and go through the main ones developed which are Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric and R3 corda to conclude that Hyperledger is the most suitable. Finally, for the last part, we will consider the implementation phase requiring certain computer science knowledge and more time than initially forecasted. We will come up with a solution allowing us to go deeper into the subject and to have a full implementation of the contract chosen in the near future. The solution brought is the double bachelor thesis. It consists to ask a student from “Informatique de gestion” which is a computer science branch of HEG to make his bachelor thesis on the second part of my bachelor thesis

A New Method for Structural Simulation

In this paper structural change is defined and a tool to simulate structural changes is introduced which consists of a new simulation language which allows to deal separately with quantitative changes and structural qualitative changes. Two strategies of structural simulation are described. In the first one, the user defines the possible structures and conditions of change. In this case, the simulation process finds the structural paths through successive structures. In the second strategy, the structures are generated by the simulation process based on the model of creative thinking proposed by Poincare and Hadamard. AI and genetic programming techniques are used to implement the model. A simple example is given to illustrate the method of the second strategy

Blocking of Acquisition But Not Expression of Conditioned Fear-Potentiated Startle by NMDA Antagonists in the Amygdala

Assessed the role of N-methyl-{d}-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the amygdala in associative fear conditioning. 132 rats were implanted with cannulae aimed at the basolateral amygdaloid nuclei, while 13 controls had cannulae aimed at the interpositus nuclei of the cerebellum. NMDA antagonists infused into the amygdala blocked the acquisition, but not the expression, of fear conditioning measured with a behavioral assay mediated by a defined neural circuit (fear-potentiation of the acoustic startle reflex). This effect showed anatomical and pharmacological specificity, and was not attributable to reduced salience of the stimuli of light or shock used in training. An NMDA-dependent process in the amygdala was critical for associative fear conditioning

Mechanisms that shape microbial pangenomes

Analyses of multiple whole-genome sequences from the same species have revealed that differences in gene content can be substantial, particularly in prokaryotes. Such variation has led to the recognition of pangenomes, the complete set of genes present in a species – consisting of core genes present in all individuals, and accessory genes whose presence is variable. Questions now arise about how pangenomes originate and evolve. We describe how gene content variation can arise as a result of the combination of several processes including random drift, selection, gain-loss balance, and the influence of ecological and epistatic interactions. We believe that identifying the contributions of these processes to pangenomes will need novel theoretical approaches and empirical data

Congenital pulmonary adenomatoid malformation: Indication and management of fetal shunting in our center

Objective: Congenital pulmonary adenomatoid malformations (CPAM) are increasingly diagnosed in recent years thanks to the expert hands and the technology of ultrasonography used in antenatal diagnosis. The purpose was to examine a series of cases referred to our fetalmaternal tertiary center for lung disease and to present the natural course, treatment and outcome of antenatally diagnosed cystic lung disease. Material and Methods: We proposed a retrospective study (October 2003 to September 2016) in a single center. Prenatal and postnatal data of fetus, with suspected CPAM, where analyzed. Results: We studied 34 cases. One child was excluded post-natally because at birth diagnosis of esophageal duplication was made. Mean gestational age at the diagnosis was 22 weeks (range 21 to 28). Thoracoamniotic shunting was performed in 9 cases. In 8 cases, it was an intra-cystic drain and in 1 case, a pleuroamniotic drain. Mean gestational age for drainage was 25 weeks (range 22 to 28). Mean gestational age at delivery was 38 weeks. All patients underwent postnatal radiological assessment. Anatomical surgical resection was performed in all cases: immediately at birth in 7 symptomatic cases, in the first year of life for 1 case that became symptomatic and 1 patient died immediately at birth due to severe respiratory distress. Conclusion: Antenatally diagnosed CPAM have an excellent prognosis. We propose invasive prenatal thoracoamniotic shunting in rare cases with unequivocal fetal compromise (i.e., polydramnios and hydrops)

Automatic Tuning Matching Cycler (ATMC) in situ NMR spectroscopy as a novel approach for real-time investigations of Li- and Na-ion batteries.

We have developed and explored the use of a new Automatic Tuning Matching Cycler (ATMC) in situ NMR probe system to track the formation of intermediate phases and investigate electrolyte decomposition during electrochemical cycling of Li- and Na-ion batteries (LIBs and NIBs). The new approach addresses many of the issues arising during in situ NMR, e.g., significantly different shifts of the multi-component samples, changing sample conditions (such as the magnetic susceptibility and conductivity) during cycling, signal broadening due to paramagnetism as well as interferences between the NMR and external cycler circuit that might impair the experiments. We provide practical insight into how to conduct ATMC in situ NMR experiments and discuss applications of the methodology to LiFePO4 (LFP) and Na3V2(PO4)2F3 cathodes as well as Na metal anodes. Automatic frequency sweep (7)Li in situ NMR reveals significant changes of the strongly paramagnetic broadened LFP line shape in agreement with the structural changes due to delithiation. Additionally, (31)P in situ NMR shows a full separation of the electrolyte and cathode NMR signals and is a key feature for a deeper understanding of the processes occurring during charge/discharge on the local atomic scale of NMR. (31)P in situ NMR with "on-the-fly" re-calibrated, varying carrier frequencies on Na3V2(PO4)2F3 as a cathode in a NIB enabled the detection of different P signals within a huge frequency range of 4000 ppm. The experiments show a significant shift and changes in the number as well as intensities of (31)P signals during desodiation/sodiation of the cathode. The in situ experiments reveal changes of local P environments that in part have not been seen in ex situ NMR investigations. Furthermore, we applied ATMC (23)Na in situ NMR on symmetrical Na-Na cells during galvanostatic plating. An automatic adjustment of the NMR carrier frequency during the in situ experiment ensured on-resonance conditions for the Na metal and electrolyte peak, respectively. Thus, interleaved measurements with different optimal NMR set-ups for the metal and electrolyte, respectively, became possible. This allowed the formation of different Na metal species as well as a quantification of electrolyte consumption during the electrochemical experiment to be monitored. The new approach is likely to benefit a further understanding of Na-ion battery chemistries.The collaboration with Marco Braun (NMR Service GmbH, Erfurt, DE) on NMR probehead design and manufacturing is gratefully acknowledged. We acknowledge Baris Key, Rangeet Bhattacharrya and Revolution NMR LLC (Fort Collins, CO, USA) for the development of the first generation in situ NMR probes. We thank David Bennett (Bruker Biospin, Rheinstetten, DE), Andrew J. Pell (Cambridge, UK), and Peter Grice (Cambridge, UK) for fruitful discussions and Nathan Pitt (Cambridge, UK) for technical support. C.P.G. and Z.L. acknowledge Prof. Yong Yang (Xiamen, China) and his group for ongoing collaborations on Na3V2(PO4)2F3. O.P. and P.M.B. gratefully acknowledge financial support through a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014-EF, #655444) and FP7 Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship, respectively. Research was supported in part by the NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage (NECCES), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award # DE-SC0012583 (LFP materials, H.L., and N.M.T.), and by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies of the U.S. Department of Energy, under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231, under the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies Program subcontract 7057154 (Na metal).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmr.2016.02.00

Time-to-birth prediction models and the influence of expert opinions

Preterm birth is the leading cause of death among children under five years old. The pathophysiology and etiology of preterm labor are not yet fully understood. This causes a large number of unnecessary hospitalizations due to high--sensitivity clinical policies, which has a significant psychological and economic impact. In this study, we present a predictive model, based on a new dataset containing information of 1,243 admissions, that predicts whether a patient will give birth within a given time after admission. Such a model could provide support in the clinical decision-making process. Predictions for birth within 48 h or 7 days after admission yield an Area Under the Curve of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUC) of 0.72 for both tasks. Furthermore, we show that by incorporating predictions made by experts at admission, which introduces a potential bias, the prediction effectiveness increases to an AUC score of 0.83 and 0.81 for these respective tasks

Mitochondrial Biogenesis: Cell-Cycle-Dependent Investment in Making Mitochondria

SummaryMitochondria cannot be made de novo, so pre-existing mitochondria must be inherited at each cell division. A new study demonstrates cell-cycle-dependent regulation of the activity of the TOM translocase complex to induce mitochondrial biogenesis during the M phase of the cell cycle

Del silencio al empoderamiento comunicacional: Una propuesta de gestión digital para el Foro Nacional de Mujeres de Partidos Políticos de Panamá

El Fonamupp és una organització del Tercer Sector conformada per militants de diferents partits amb l'objectiu de defensar els drets polítics de les dones. La investigació proposa, a partir de l'autonomia en l'ús de la tecnologia, una gestió organitzada del seu ecosistema digital per augmentar la visibilitat de les dones polítiques. Es pretén amplificar el seu ja existent, però poc actiu, perfil a les xarxes socials per tal de connectar i generar aliances amb altres veus interessades en la transformació de les formes hegemòniques de participació política.El Fonamupp es una organización del Tercer Sector, conformado por militantes de distintos partidos cuyo objetivo es defender los derechos políticos de las mujeres. La investigación propone, a partir de la autonomía en el uso de la tecnología, una gestión organizada de su ecosistema digital para aumentar la visibilidad de las mujeres políticas. Se pretende amplificar su ya existente, pero poco activa, perfil en las redes sociales a fin de conectar y generar alianzas con otras voces interesadas en la transformación de las formas hegemónicas de participación política.Fonamupp is an organization of the Third Sector, made up of members of different parties whose objective is to defend the political rights of women. The research proposes, based on the autonomy in the use of technology, an organized management of its digital ecosystem to increase the visibility of women politicians. The aim is to amplify their already existing, but not very active, profile in social media in order to connect and generate alliances with other voices interested in the transformation of hegemonic forms of political participation