Counterexamples Related to a Characterization of Multivariate Regular Variation

Counterexamples Related to a Characterization of Multivariate Regular Variatio

Heavy-Tailed Insurance Portfolios: Buffer Capital and Ruin Probabilities

Heavy-Tailed Insurance Portfolios: Buffer Capital and Ruin Probabilitie

Revisiting Orientations in Language Planning: Problem, Right, and Resource as an Analytical Heuristic

In 1984, Richard Ruiz set forth three orientations to language planning: language as problem, language as right, and language as resource. Since that time, the orientations have only become more powerful, rising to the level of paradigm in the field of language policy and planning (LPP). In this paper, we revisit Ruiz’s orientations. By drawing upon Ruiz’s own work as well as the work of other scholars who have been inspired by him, we unpack the ideas aligned with each orientation in order to reflect upon the application of the three orientations as a heuristic for LPP. In contrast to critiques that the three orientations do not map onto the political reality of policy situations, we argue that they are analytically useful as both etic concepts that can be used by researchers to guide deductive analysis about the values that emerge from messy policy debate and negotiation and as (latent) emic concepts in situations when people express their beliefs about language

Nonlinear optical properties of a channel waveguide produced with crosslinkable ferroelectric liquid crystals

A binary mixture of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) was used for the design of a channel waveguide. The FLCs possess two important functionalities: a chromophore with a high hyperpolarizability $\beta$ and photoreactive groups. The smectic liquid crystal is aligned in layers parallel to the glass plates in a sandwich geometry. This alignment offers several advantages, such as that moderate electric fields are sufficient to achieve a high degree of polar order. The arrangement was then permanently fixed by photopolymerization which yielded a polar network possessing a high thermal and mechanical stability which did not show any sign of degradation within the monitored period of several months. The linear and nonlinear optical properties have been measured and all four independent components of the nonlinear susceptibility tensor $\bar d$ have been determined. The off-resonant $d$-coefficients are remarkably high and comparable to those of the best known inorganic materials. The alignment led to an inherent channel waveguide for p-polarized light without additional preparation steps. The photopolymerization did not induce scattering sites in the waveguide and the normalized losses were less than 2 dB/cm. The material offers a great potential for the design of nonlinear optical devices such as frequency doublers of low power laser diodes.Comment: LaTeX2e article, 15 pages, 10 figures, 11 EPS files, submitted to Physical Review

Tremorogeni učinci ekstrakata plijesni izoliranih iz prašine drveta u štakora

Among workers in the Swedish wood industry acute alveolitis, known as “woodtrimmer\u27s disease” has been recognized for some time. One of the signs in the acute phase of the disease is transitory tremor. The etiology of the disease is still not clearly understood, but it is assumed to be associated with wood dust containing fungal spores. One of the dominant fungal strains isolated from wood at the saw-mills was found to be Aspergillus fumigatus. As it is known that Aspergillus fumigatus has the ability to produce tremorgenic mycotoxins, the moulds from the working environment were isolated, cultivated and tested for the ability to produce mycotoxins, to estimate a possible relation between fungal spores and tremorgenic effects. Extracts of moulds were prepared and tested on rats after oral administration. The ability to induce tremors in rats was found in six out of nine extracts tested. A very good agreement was found between the results of the chemical analysis of extracts and those of the study in vivo. The results imply that woodtrimmer\u27s disease may at least partly, be mycotoxicosis.U Švedskoj, u radnika zaposlenih u drvnoj industriji, javlja se akutni alveolitis poznat i pod nazivom Woodtrimmer\u27s disease, popraćen prolaznim tremorom. Pojava je nepoznate etiologije ali se povezuje s izloženošću drvenoj prašini u kojoj se nalaze spore različitih plijesni. Aspergillus fumigatus je plijesan koja se najčešće izolira u sušarama drveta. Iz radne sredine izolirane su plijesni Aspergillus flavusa te je nakon kultivacije testirana njihova sposobnost stvaranja tremorogenih mikotoksina analitičkim metodama i u pokusima na štakorima. Ekstrakti plijesni aplicirani su pokusnim životinjama oralno. Šest od devet ekstrakata izazvalo je pojavu tremora u tretiranih životinja. Nađena je vrlo dobra korelacija rezultata kemijskih analiza i rezultata dobivenih u pokusima in vivo. Podaci upućuju na moguću vezu između Woodtrimmer\u27s disease i izloženosti radnika tremorogenim mikotoksinima

Nursing assistants matters—An ethnographic study of knowledge sharing in interprofessional practice

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Interprofessional collaboration involves some kind of knowledge sharing, which is essential and will be important in the future in regard to the opportunities and challenges in practices for delivering safe and effective health care. Nursing assistants are seldom mentioned as a group of health care workers that contribute to interprofessional collaboration in health care practice. The aim of this ethnographic study was to explore how the nursing assistants’ knowledge can be shared in a team on a spinal cord injury rehabilitation ward. Using a sociomaterial perspective on practice, we captured different aspects of interprofessional collaboration in health care. The findings reveal how knowledge was shared between professionals, depending on different kinds of practice architecture. These specific cultural–discursive, material–economic, and social–political arrangements enabled possibilities through which nursing assistants’ knowledge informed other practices, and others’ knowledge informed the practice of nursing assistants. By studying what health care professionals actually do and say in practice, we found that the nursing assistants could make a valuable contribution of knowledge to the team

A and B antigen levels acquired by group O donor-derived erythrocytes following ABO-non-identical transfusion or minor ABO-incompatible haematopoietic stem cell transplantation

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: ABO-incompatible haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) presents a challenge to blood component transfusion. The aim of this study was to investigate the weak blood group A or B antigen expression by donor-derived group O red blood cells (RBC) observed following transfusion or minor ABO-incompatible HSCT. In addition, in vitro experiments were performed to elucidate possible mechanisms underlying this phenomenon.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A sensitive flow cytometry assay for the semi-quantification of RBC A/B antigen levels was used to assess patient samples and evaluate in vitro experiments.RESULTS: Analysis of blood samples from patients, originally typed as A, B and AB but recently transplanted or transfused with cells from group O donors, revealed the A antigen expression on donor-derived RBC, ranging from very low levels in non-secretor individuals to almost subgroup Ax -like profiles in group A secretors. The B antigen expression was less readily detectable. In vitro experiments, in which group O donor RBC were incubated with (i) group A/B secretor/non-secretor donor plasma or (ii) group A/B donor RBC in the absence of plasma, supported the proposed adsorption of A/B antigen-bearing glycolipids from secretor plasma but also indicated a secretor-independent mechanism for A/B antigen acquisition as well as direct cell-to-cell transfer of ABO antigens.CONCLUSION: The in vivo conversion of donor-derived blood group O RBC to ABO subgroup-like RBC after transfusion or minor ABO-incompatible HSCT raises the question of appropriate component selection. Based on these data, AB plasma should be transfused following ABO-incompatible HSCT

A calibration method for broad-bandwidth cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy performed with supercontinuum radiation

An efficient calibration method has been developed for broad-bandwidth cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy. The calibration is performed using phase shift cavity ring-down spectroscopy, which is conveniently implemented through use of an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). The AOTF permits a narrowband portion of the SC spectrum to be scanned over the full high-reflectivity bandwidth of the cavity mirrors. After calibration the AOTF is switched off and broad-bandwidth CEAS can be performed with the same light source without any loss of alignment to the set-up. We demonstrate the merits of the method by probing transitions of oxygen molecules O-2 and collisional pairs of oxygen molecules (O-2)(2) in the visible spectral range

Unified Treatment of Asymptotic van der Waals Forces

In a framework for long-range density-functional theory we present a unified full-field treatment of the asymptotic van der Waals interaction for atoms, molecules, surfaces, and other objects. The only input needed consists of the electron densities of the interacting fragments and the static polarizability or the static image plane, which can be easily evaluated in a ground-state density-functional calculation for each fragment. Results for separated atoms, molecules, and for atoms/molecules outside surfaces are in agreement with those of other, more elaborate, calculations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Highly sensitive gamma-spectrometers of GERDA for material screening: Part I

The GERDA experiment aims to search for the neutrinoless double beta-decay of 76Ge and possibly for other rare processes. The sensitivity of the first phase is envisioned to be more than one order of magnitude better than in previous neutrinoless double beta-decay experiments. This implies that materials with ultra-low radioactive contamination need to be used for the construction of the detector and its shielding. Therefore the requirements on material screening include high-sensitivity low-background detection techniques and long measurement times. In this article, an overview of material-screening laboratories available to the GERDA collaboration is given, with emphasis on the gamma-spectrometry. Additionally, results of an intercomparison of the evaluation accuracy in these laboratories are presented.Comment: Featured in: Proceedings of the XIV International Baksan School "Particles and Cosmology" Baksan Valley, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, April 16-21,2007. INR RAS, Moscow 2008. ISBN 978-5-94274-055-9, pp. 228-232; (5 pages, 0 figures