Reflection on multilayer mirrors beam profile and coherence properties

The main advantage of Bragg reflection from a multilayer mirror as a monochromator for hard X rays, is the higher photon flux density because of the larger spectral bandpass compared with crystal lattice reflection. The main disadvantage lies in the strong modulations of the reflected beam profile. This is a major issue for micro imaging applications, where multilayer based monochromators are frequently employed to deliver high photon flux density. A subject of particular interest is the origin of the beam profile modifications, namely the irregular stripe patterns, induced by the reflection on a multilayer. For multilayer coatings in general it is known that the substrate and its surface quality significantly influence the performance of mirrors, as the coating reproduces to a certain degree the roughness and shape of the substrate. This proceedings article reviews recent experiments that indicate potential options for producing wave front preserving multilayer mirrors, as well as new details on the particular mirrors our group has extensively studied in the pas

Verification Witnesses

Over the last years, witness-based validation of verification results has become an established practice in software verification: An independent validator re-establishes verification results of a software verifier using verification witnesses, which are stored in a standardized exchange format. In addition to validation, such exchangable information about proofs and alarms found by a verifier can be shared across verification tools, and users can apply independent third-party tools to visualize and explore witnesses to help them comprehend the causes of bugs or the reasons why a given program is correct. To achieve the goal of making verification results more accessible to engineers, it is necessary to consider witnesses as first-class exchangeable objects, stored independently from the source code and checked independently from the verifier that produced them, respecting the important principle of separation of concerns. We present the conceptual principles of verification witnesses, give a description of how to use them, provide a technical specification of the exchange format for witnesses, and perform an extensive experimental study on the application of witness-based result validation, using the validators CPAchecker, UAutomizer, CPA-witness2test, and FShell-witness2test

Effects Of Body Position And Sex Group On Tongue Pressure Generation

Fine control of orofacial musculature is necessary to precisely accelerate and decelerate the articulators across exact distances for functional speech and coordinated swallows (Amerman & Parnell, 1990; Benjamin, 1997; Kent, Duffy, Slama, Kent, & Clift, 2001). Enhanced understanding of neural control for such movements could clarify the nature of and potential remediation for some dysarthrias and other orofacial myofunctional impairments. Numerous studies have measured orolingual force and accuracy during speech and nonspeech tasks, but have focused on young adults, maximum linguapalatal pressures, and upright positioning (O’Day, Frank, Montgomery, Nichols, & McDade, 2005; Solomon & Munson, 2004; Somodi, Robin, & Luschei, 1995; Youmans, Youmans, & Stierwalt, 2009). Patients’ medical conditions or testing procedures such as concurrent neuroimaging may preclude fully upright positioning during oral motor assessments in some cases. Since judgments about lingual strength and coordination can influence clinical decisions regarding the functionality of swallowing and speech, it is imperative to understand any effects of body positioning differences. In addition, sex differences in the control of such tasks are not well defined. Therefore, this study evaluated whether pressures exerted during tongue movements differ in upright vs. supine body position in healthy middle-aged men and women. Twenty healthy middle-aged adults compressed small air-filled plastic bulbs in the oral cavity at predetermined fractions of task-specific peak pressure in a randomized block design. Tasks including phoneme repetitions and nonspeech isometric contractions were executed in upright and supine positions. Participants received continuous visual feedback regarding targets and actual exerted pressures. Analyses compared average pressure values for each subject, task, position, and effort level. Speech-like and nonspeech tongue pressures did not differ significantly across body position or sex groups. Pressure matching was significantly less accurate at higher percentages of maximum pressure for both tasks. These results provide preliminary comparative data for the clinical assessment of individuals with orofacial myofunctional and neurological disorders

Panama and the WTO : new constitutionalism of trade policy and global tax governance

"Corrigendum" in Review of International Political Economy, 24(4), p. 738 (DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2017.1332547).Tax havens and tax flight have lately received increasing attention, while interest toward multilateral trade policies has somewhat diminished. We argue that more attention needs to be paid exactly to the interrelations between trade and tax policies. Drawing from two case studies on Panama's trade disputes, we show how World Trade Organization (WTO) rules can be used both to resist attempts to sanction secrecy structures and to promote measures against tax flight. The theory of new constitutionalism can help to explain how trade treaties can 'lock in' tax policies. However, our case studies show that trade policy not only 'locks in' democratic policy-making, but also enables tax havens to use their commercialized sovereignty to resists anti-secrecy measures. What is being 'locked in' are the policy tools, not necessarily the policies. The changing relationship between trade and tax policies can also create new and unexpected tools for tackling tax evasion, underlining the importance of epistemic arbitrage in the context of new constitutionalism. In principle, political actors with sufficient technical and juridical knowledge can shape global tax governance to various directions regardless of their formal position in the world political hierarchies. This should be taken into account when trade treaties are being negotiated or revised.Peer reviewe

The impact of deregulation and re-regulation on bank efficiency: evidence from Asia

Following the 1997 crisis, banking sector reforms in Asia have been characterised by the emphasis on prudential regulation, associated with increased financial liberalisation. Using a panel data set of commercial banks from eight major Asian economies over the period 2001-2010, this study explores how the coexistence of liberalisation and prudential regulation affects banks’ cost characteristics. Given the presence of heterogeneity of technologies across countries, we use a stochastic frontier approach followed by the estimation of a deterministic meta-frontier to provide ‘true’ estimates of bank cost efficiency measures. Our results show that the liberalization of bank interest rates and the increase in foreign banks' presence have had a positive and significant impact on technological progress and cost efficiency. On the other hand, we find that prudential regulation might adversely affect bank cost performance. When designing an optimal regulatory framework, policy makers should combine policies which aim to foster financial stability without hindering financial intermediation

Access and outcomes of general practitioner obstetrician (rural generalist)-supported birthing units in Queensland

Funding Information Queensland Rural Generalist PathwayPeer reviewedPublisher PD

A Rapid, Handheld Device to Assess Respiratory Resistance: Clinical and Normative Evidence

Introduction: Following reports of respiratory symptoms among service members returning from deployment to South West Asia (SWA), an expert panel recommended pre-deployment spirometry be used to assess disease burden. Unfortunately, testing with spirometry is high cost and time-consuming. The airflow perturbation device (APD) is a handheld monitor that rapidly measures respiratory resistance (APD-Rr) and has promising but limited clinical data. Its speed and portability make it ideally suited for large volume pre-deployment screening. We conducted a pilot study to assess APD performance characteristics and develop normative values. Materials and Methods: We prospectively enrolled subjects and derived reference equations for the APD from those without respiratory symptoms, pulmonary disease, or tobacco exposure. APD testing was conducted by medical technicians who received a 10-min in-service on its use. A subset of subjects performed spirometry and impulse oscillometry (iOS), administered by trained respiratory therapists. APD measures were compared with spirometry and iOS. Results: The total study population included 199 subjects (55.8% males, body mass index 27.7 ± 6.0 kg/m2, age 49.9 ± 18.7 yr). Across the three APD trials, mean inspiratory (APD-Ri), expiratory (APD-Re), and average (APD-Ravg) resistances were 3.30 ± 1.0, 3.69 ± 1.2, and 3.50 ± 1.1 cm H2O/L/s. Reference equations were derived from 142 clinically normal volunteers. Height, weight, and body mass index were independently associated with APD-Ri, APD-Re, and APD-Ravg and were combined with age and gender in linear regression models. APD-Ri, APD-Re, and APD-Ravg were significantly inversely correlated with FEV1 (r = −0.39 to −0.42), FVC (r = −0.37 to −0.40), and FEF25–75 (r = −0.31 to −0.35) and positively correlated with R5 (r = 0.61–0.62), R20 (r = 0.50–0.52), X5 (r = −0.57 to −0.59), and FRES (r = 0.42–0.43). Bland–Altman plots showed that the APD-Rr closely approximates iOS when resistance is normal. Conclusion: Rapid testing was achieved with minimal training required, and reference equations were constructed. APD-Rr correlated moderately with iOS and weakly with spirometry. More testing is required to determine whether the APD has value for pre- and post-deployment respiratory assessment

A systematic overexpression approach reveals native targets to increase squalene production in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Cyanobacteria are a promising platform for the production of the triterpene squalene (C30), a precursor for all plant and animal sterols, and a highly attractive intermediate towards triterpenoids, a large group of secondary plant metabolites. Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 natively produces squalene from CO2 through the MEP pathway. Based on the predictions of a constraint-based metabolic model, we took a systematic overexpression approach to quantify native Synechocystis gene’s impact on squalene production in a squalene-hopene cyclase gene knock-out strain (Δshc). Our in silico analysis revealed an increased flux through the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle in the Δshc mutant compared to the wildtype, including the pentose phosphate pathway, as well as lower glycolysis, while the tricarboxylic acid cycle predicted to be downregulated. Further, all enzymes of the MEP pathway and terpenoid synthesis, as well as enzymes from the central carbon metabolism, Gap2, Tpi and PyrK, were predicted to positively contribute to squalene production upon their overexpression. Each identified target gene was integrated into the genome of Synechocystis Δshc under the control of the rhamnose-inducible promoter Prha. Squalene production was increased in an inducer concentration dependent manner through the overexpression of most predicted genes, which are genes of the MEP pathway, ispH, ispE, and idi, leading to the greatest improvements. Moreover, we were able to overexpress the native squalene synthase gene (sqs) in Synechocystis Δshc, which reached the highest production titer of 13.72 mg l-1 reported for squalene in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 so far, thereby providing a promising and sustainable platform for triterpene production

Study of multilayer-reflected beam profiles and their coherence properties using beamlines ID19 (ESRF) and 32-ID (APS)

Abstract. The use of multilayer mirrors is an interesting alternative for reflective X-ray monochromatization with respect to reflection from crystal optics. The increased photon flux density due to the multilayers' larger bandwidth is of crucial importance for, e.g, full-field X-ray imaging applications. Drawbacks are the introduced modifications of the reflected beam profile as well as a certain loss of coherence, summarized as wavefront degradation. Our recent work has shown that the modification of the beam profile can vary with, e.g., the material composition of the coating applied. In order to verify our findings, a beamline round-robin has been initiated, comparing the wavefront profiles after reflection by selected multilayers at beamlines 32-ID (Advanced Photon Source) and ID19 (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) with our initial results acquired at BM05 (ESRF