On-Line Payment Method for Small Amount Transactions Using Hierarchical Prepaid Cards

Traditional payment methods such as credit cards are not suitable for small amount payment because the transaction may cost certain commission comparable to the small amount payment. When we buy a cheap item at real shop, we pay by cash. But, how about online shopping where you cannot pay by cash? There are a ton of contents online having potential value to sell but not as expensive as credit card payment fits - such as multimedia clips. How an online shopper can buy them? A widely used solution is aggregation: online merchants bundle several (sometimes unnecessary) items together to multiply the price. Another solution is having payment method suitable for small amount, aka micropayment. There has been many research-level micropayment schemes developed, using cryptographic schemes to eliminate the need to access central server for authorization purposes - what researchers claim costly operation. Such schemes with off-line verification enable banks or other participants to trace back to a crook that cheats by double spending. However, such schemes cannot stop double spending itself and thus a crook can run away before they become aware of the cheat[?]

On dissemination mechanism of corporate social responsibility (CSR): Analysis with agent simulation

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), such as pro-environmental behaviour and fair trade, is a kind of normative behaviour by private companies to provide a quasi-public good. We study dissemination mechanism of CSR with a multi-agent model in which corporation agents and consumer agents interact with each other. We show that the mechanism to disseminate CSR is a positive feedback between the corporations\u27 popularity seeking behaviour and the consumers\u27 social learning in which CSR-seeking preference is evaluated according to both the local average of the preferences of surrounding consumers and the global average of the investment in CSR by all corporations. We also discuss an institutional design to establish CSR from an objectionable social state

Adsorption of heavy metals in mine wastewater by Mongolian natural zeolite

AbstractIn the first, Mongolian natural zeolites, whose base components were clinoptilolite, mordenite, and chabazite, were characterized in terms of element content, cation exchange capacity, and the like. Since the molar ratios of aluminum relative to silicon contained in Mongolian natural zeolites used in this study were lower than those of pure zeolites, the natural zeolite samples contained substantial amounts of impurities. The cation exchange capacity of the natural zeolite sample relatively increased with increasing aluminum content in the zeolite sample. Secondly, the batch equilibrium adsorptions of heavy metals, i.e., copper, zinc, and manganese, from model aqueous wastewater by Mongolian natural zeolites were carried. The natural zeolites could adsorb and remove the heavy metals in the aqueous solutions. The precipitation of metal hydroxide affected the results of adsorption in some cases. The saturated adsorbed amounts of the heavy metals estimated by Langmuir equation were almost same with one another, increased with solution pH and with cation exchange capacity of the natural zeolite

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells in Cardiovascular Medicine

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are generated by reprogramming human somatic cells through the forced expression of several embryonic stem (ES) cell-specific transcription factors. The potential of iPS cells is having a significant impact on regenerative medicine, with the promise of infinite self-renewal, differentiation into multiple cell types, and no problems concerning ethics or immunological rejection. Human iPS cells are currently generated by transgene introduction principally through viral vectors, which integrate into host genomes, although the associated risk of tumorigenesis is driving research into nonintegration methods. Techniques for pluripotent stem cell differentiation and purification to yield cardiomyocytes are also advancing constantly. Although there remain some unsolved problems, cardiomyocyte transplantation may be a reality in the future. After those problems will be solved, applications of human iPS cells in human cardiovascular regenerative medicine will be envisaged for the future. Furthermore, iPS cell technology has generated new human disease models using disease-specific cells. This paper summarizes the progress of iPS cell technology in cardiovascular research