Potential competitive effects on U.S. bank credit card lending from the proposed bifurcated application of Basel II

This paper analyzes the potential competitive effects of the proposed bifurcated application of Basel II capital regulations in the United States on bank credit card lending activities. For this purpose, the authors consider the Basel II regulations as stated in the June 2004 Basel Committee Framework Agreement. ; Also issued as Payment Cards Center Discussion Paper No. 05-21 ; Superseded by Working Paper 07-09Basel capital accord ; Credit cards

Water Chemisorption and Reconstruction of the MgO Surface

The observed reactivity of MgO with water is in apparent conflict with theoretical calculations which show that molecular dissociation does not occur on a perfect (001) surface. We have performed ab-initio total energy calculations which show that a chemisorption reaction involving a reconstruction to form a (111) hydroxyl surface is strongly preferred with Delta E = -90.2kJ/mol. We conclude that protonation stabilizes the otherwise unstable (111) surface and that this, not the bare (001), is the most stable surface of MgO under ambient conditions.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 1 Encapsulated Postscript Figur

High‐Frequency Dissolved Organic Carbon and Nitrate Measurements Reveal Differences in Storm Hysteresis and Loading in Relation to Land Cover and Seasonality

Storm events dominate riverine loads of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrate and are expected to increase in frequency and intensity in many regions due to climate change. We deployed three high‐frequency (15 min) in situ absorbance spectrophotometers to monitor DOC and nitrate concentration for 126 storms in three watersheds with agricultural, urban, and forested land use/land cover. We examined intrastorm hysteresis and the influences of seasonality, storm size, and dominant land use/land cover on storm DOC and nitrate loads. DOC hysteresis was generally anticlockwise at all sites, indicating distal and plentiful sources for all three streams despite varied DOC character and sources. Nitrate hysteresis was generally clockwise for urban and forested sites, but anticlockwise for the agricultural site, indicating an exhaustible, proximal source of nitrate in the urban and forested sites, and more distal and plentiful sources of nitrate in the agricultural site. The agricultural site had significantly higher storm nitrate yield per water yield and higher storm DOC yield per water yield than the urban or forested sites. Seasonal effects were important for storm nitrate yield in all three watersheds and farm management practices likely caused complex interactions with seasonality at the agricultural site. Hysteresis indices did not improve predictions of storm nitrate yields at any site. We discuss key lessons from using high‐frequency in situ optical sensors

Effects of Casting Conditions and Annealing on Microstructures and Vickers Hardness of Dendritic Pd-Cu-Ga Dental Alloys

Three Pd-Cu-Ga alloys with as-cast dendritic microstructures and very similar compositions, two containing less than 1 wt% boron and the third boron-free, were cast with normal bench-cooling or rapid-quenching into water. Quenched specimens were also heat treated at temperatures of 1000°, 1200°, 1500° and 1800°F that span the firing cycles for dental porcelain. Similar values of Vickers hardness were observed for all three alloys, suggesting little effect from boron on yield strength. The hardness was relatively insensitive to the experimental conditions, except for heat treatment at 1500° and 1800°F where significant softening occurred with transformation of the microstructure to Pd2Ga and the palladium solid solution

Exploring the applicability of solar driven photocatalytic processes to control inestation by zebra mussel

Dreissena polymorpha (zebra mussel) is an invasive freshwater bivalve mollusc that causes important technical and environmental problems. Titanium dioxide solar photocatalysis was checked for disinfestation of veligers of zebra mussel. Approximately 70% damaged larvae were observed after 2h of solar irradiation with 0.2 and 0.5g/l of TiO 2. Neutral photo-Fenton could be a promising alternative as ca. 80% damaged larvae were detected in only 3h irradiation in the presence of H 2O 2 (10mg/l). This process was clearly more effective than sunlight irradiation, H 2O 2, or dark Fenton. The performance of the process was slightly improved when a pH value of 5.5 was employed, although further research is needed to explore the compatibility of this medium with irrigation. Finally, the process was scaled up to 4l using a solar photo-reactor; again in this case, 90% of the veligers were damaged after 3h of irradiation. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.We want to acknowledge the financial support of Spanish Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, Medio Rural y Marino (Project 100/RN08/03.4) and Confederacion Hidrografica del Ebro for providing water samples infested with zebra mussel.Bernabeu García, A.; Vicente Candela, R.; Peribañez Lopez, MA.; Arques Sanz, A.; Amat Payá, AM. (2011). Exploring the applicability of solar driven photocatalytic processes to control inestation by zebra mussel. Chemical Engineering Journal. 171(2):490-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2011.04.009S490494171

Review of Dental Impression Materials

Major advances in impression materials and their application have occurred during the last decade, with greater emphasis being placed on rubber impression materials than on dental compound, zinc oxide-eugenol, and agar and alginate. Of particular interest has been the effect of disinfection solutions on the qualities of impressions and the biocompatibility of impression materials. The principal advance in hydrocolloids has been the introduction of the agar/alginate impression technique, which has simplified the procedure and improved the quality of gypsum dies compared with those prepared in alginate impressions. The tear strength of some alginates has been improved, and some have been formulated so that the powder is dustless, thus reducing the health hazard as a result of patient inhalation of dust during the dispensing process. Polyether and silicone impression materials have been modified so that the working time, viscosity, and flexibility of the polyethers have been improved and, with the introduction of addition silicones, their accuracy has become exceptional. Although the early addition silicones liberated hydrogen after setting, thus delaying the pouring of models and dies, most addition silicones have been improved so that no hydrogen is released and dies can be poured immediately. The introduction of automatic mixing systems for addition silicones has simplified their manipulation, has reduced the number of voids in impressions, and has reduced the amount of material wasted. The incorporation of surfactants into addition silicones has made them hydrophilic, with wetting properties similar to those of polyethers, and has made pouring bubble-free gypsum dies easier. This review is confined to published and unpublished information of the past decade. It will also suggest trends that should be anticipated in the near future based on this information. The review will not present information developed before 1975, which is available in several textbooks on dental materials by Craig (1985a), Phillips (1982), and Williams and Cunningham (1979).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66604/2/10.1177_08959374880020012001.pd

Solar photo-Fenton at mild conditions to treat a mixture of six emerging pollutants

The applicability of photo-Fenton to degrade a mixture of emerging pollutants (EPs) namely amoxycillin, acetaminophen, acetemiprid, caffeine, clofibric acid and carbamazepine has been studied at different scenarios. At high concentrations, acidic photo-Fenton was able to achieve a fast removal of the EPs. Although, complete mineralization was not reached, the toxicity of the solution was decreased according to the respiration of activated sludge and luminescence of Vibrio fischeri assays, although according to this last assay a transitory enhancement of the toxicity was found, attributable to the formation of toxic byproducts such as phenols, chlorophenols and chlorinated pyrydines. Experiments carried out with 5 mg/l of each EP showed that at neutral media the process was two orders of magnitude less efficient than at acidic pH, although it was still able to remove the EPs. The aqueous matrix has a remarkable effect on the process as the presence of humic acids increased the reaction rate and inorganic salts played an inhibitory role. Finally, experiments performed with 10 lg/l of each EP showed that under those experimental conditions nearly complete removal of the EPs was reached with neutral photo-Fenton after 120 min of irradiation; in this case, humic substances played a disfavorable role.We want to thank the financial support of Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (CTQ 2009-13459-0O5-03) and (CTQ 2009-3459-C05-01).Bernabeu García, A.; Palacios Guillem, S.; Vicente Candela, R.; Vercher Pérez, RF.; Malato Rodríguez, S.; Arques Sanz, A.; Amat Payá, AM. (2012). Solar photo-Fenton at mild conditions to treat a mixture of six emerging pollutants. Chemical Engineering Journal. 198:65-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2012.05.056S657219

Photoinduced transformation of waste-derived soluble bio-based substances

[EN] Waste-derived, soluble bin-based substances (SBO), are effective low-cost photosensitizers that could find application in pollutant photodegradation. For this reason, it is important to understand if and to what extent irradiation could modify their properties. The exposure of SBO to simulated sunlight induced important spectral and structural modifications. Both the whole material and its acid-soluble fraction were characterized, highlighting several properties in common with humic and fulvic substances, including absorption spectra, specific absorbance and fluorescence behavior. The latter was described with a three-component model using PARAFAC analysis. Irradiation induced SBO photobleaching, but the absorbance of the acid-soluble fraction increased with irradiation. This finding suggests a progressive photochemical solubilization of SBO, which is confirmed by the increase of the carboxylic groups. In addition to absorbance, the fluorescence of whole SBO was also decreased by irradiation, thereby suggesting that both chromophores and fluorophores were photodegraded. The increasingly hydrophilic character given to SBO by irradiation also accounted for the photoinduced decrease of the surfactant properties of the material. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was funded by the 7thFP IRSES-2010-269128-EnvironBos Marie Curie Action and by Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali (Agrienergia project). The authors are grateful to the following private and/or public Italian institutions: (a) Acea Pinerolese Spa in Pinerolo (TO) for supplying the SBO sourcing materials; (b) Studio Chiono ed Associati in Rivarolo Canavese (TO) for making available pilot equipment and services for the production of the SBO.Avetta, P.; Berto, S.; Bianco Prevot, A.; Minella, M.; Montoneri, E.; Persico, D.; Vione, D.... (2015). Photoinduced transformation of waste-derived soluble bio-based substances. Chemical Engineering Journal. 274:247-255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2015.03.126S24725527

Application of soluble bio-organic substances (SBO) as photocatalysts for wastewater treatment: Sensitizing effect and photo-Fenton-like process

Soluble bio-organic substances (SBO) isolated from urban biorefuses have been investigated in photocatalytic processes for wastewater treatment using a cationic dye, namely crystal violet (CV) as target compound. The SBO have been found to enhance the photobleaching of CV solutions with an optimal SBO concentration of ca. 20 mg L-1. Mechanistic investigation based on chemical probes and changes in the absorption spectrum of CV in the presence of SBO seems to indicate that a complex formed between sensitizer and substrate plays a major role in the process. SBO have also been tested for the implementation of photo-Fenton processes at circumneutral media: the observed pseudo first order rate constants for CV decoloration was higher for UV/SBO/Fe(II)/H2O2 (5.5 x 10(-3) min(-1)) than for UV/Fe(II)/H2O2 (1.5 x 10(-3) min(-1)). A modified mechanism, in which HO center dot are less relevant that at the acidic medium, is in agreement with results of experiments carried out with chemical probes. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Gomis Vicens, J.; Vercher Pérez, RF.; Amat Payá, AM.; Martire, DO.; Gonzalez, MC.; Prevot, AB.; Montoneri, E.... (2013). Application of soluble bio-organic substances (SBO) as photocatalysts for wastewater treatment: Sensitizing effect and photo-Fenton-like process. Catalysis Today. 209:176-180. doi:10.1016/j.cattod.2012.08.036S17618020