The Impact of Tariffs on U.S. Exports of Value-Added Wheat Products

International Relations/Trade,

U.S. Exports of Value-added Wheat Products: Recent Trends and Contributing Factors

International Relations/Trade,

Multipartite reduction criteria for separability

The reduction criterion is a well known necessary condition for separable states, and states violating this condition are entangled and also 1-distillable. In this paper we introduce a new set of necessary conditions for separability of multipartite states, obtained from a set of positive but not completely positive maps. These conditions can be thought of as generalisations of the reduction criterion to multipartite systems. We use tripartite Werner states as an example to investigate the entanglement detecting powers of some of these new conditions, and we also look at what these conditions mean in terms of distillation. Finally, we show that these maps can be used to give a partial solution to the subsystem problem, as described in Ref. [14].Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, RevTe

Global Market Segmentation for Value-Added Agricultural Products

International Relations/Trade,

Global Import Demand for Value-Added Wheat Products

International Relations/Trade,

Pyrolysis of brominated feedstock plastic in a fluidised bed reactor

Fire retarded high impact polystyrene has been pyrolysed using a fluidised bed reactor with a sand bed. The yield and composition of the products have been investigated in relation to fluidised bed temperature. The bromine distribution between the products and a detailed analysis of the oils using GC-FID/ECD, GC-MS, FT-ir, and size exclusion chromatography has been carried out. It was found that the majority of the bromine transfers to the pyrolysis oil and the antimony was detected in both the oil and the char. Oil made up over 89.9% of the pyrolysis products. Over 30% of the oil consisted of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, styrene and cumene. The pyrolysis gases were mainly hydrocarbons in the C1-C4 range but some HBr and Br2 was detected

Human Resource Information System Courses: An Examination of Instructional Methods

This study examines to what degree and with what method human resource information systems (HRIS) concepts and techniques are being taught at colleges and universities in the United States. Forty-three course descriptions for graduate or undergraduate courses in HRIS, human resource management systems (HRMS), or a specialty human resource (HR) course that specifically covers HRIS or HRMS, were analyzed. Results of this analysis provide benchmarks for developing collegiate HRIS courses. A discussion is given on various teaching methods, objectives, focuses, and topics

Factors influencing choice of skilled birth attendance at ANC: evidence from the Kenya demographic health survey

Background: In Kenya, skilled attendance at delivery is well below the international target of 90% and the maternal mortality ratio is high at 362 (CI 254–471) per 100,000 live births despite various interventions. The preventative role of skilled attendance at delivery makes it a benchmark indicator for safe motherhood. Methods: Maternal health data from the Service Provision Assessment Survey, a subset of the 2010 Kenya Demographic Health Survey was analyzed. Logistic regression models were employed using likelihood ratio test to explore association between choice of skilled attendance and predictor variables. Results: Overall, 94.8% of women are likely to seek skilled attendance at delivery. Cost, education level, number of antenatal visits and sex of provider were strongly associated with client’s intention to deliver with a skilled birth attendant at delivery. Women who reported having enough money set aside for delivery were 4.34 (p \u3c 0.002, 95% CI: 1.73; 10.87) times more likely to seek skilled attendance. Those with primary education and above were 6.6 times more likely to seek skilled attendance than those with no formal education (p \u3c 0.001, 95% CI: 3.66; 11.95). Women with four or more antenatal visits were 5.95 (p \u3c 0.018, 95% CI: 1.35; 26.18) times more likely to seek skilled attendance. Compared to men, female providers impacted more on the client’s plan (OR=2.02 (p \u3c 0.014, 95% CI: 1.35; 3.53). Conclusion: Interventions aimed at improving skilled attendance at delivery should include promotion of formal education of women and financial preparation for delivery. Whenever circumstances permit, women should be allowed to choose gender of preferred professional attendant at delivery

Applying Binomial Statistics to Weighted Monte Carlo

Weighted Monte Carlo calculations requiring a uniform sampling of the problem-space can suffer from diminished statistical significance because many, if not most, of the randomly-chosen sampling points contribute only slightly to the desired result. Their contribution is reduced in size due the variable-size of the weighting terms. In contrast, none of the randomly-chosen points which are favored by variable size weighting terms will have their statistical significance enhanced beyond that of just one random point in the Monte Carlo sampling. A Monte Carlo analysis was used in earlier work to verify both Gauss\u27 Law and Newton\u27s Shell Theorem. Both examples suffered from statistical difficulties since each Monte Carlo sampling point has a weight inversely proportional to the square of the distance between source and field points. The present work analyzes the diminished significance in weighted Monte Carlo for the specific example of Newton\u27s Shell Theorem, describing the geometry in terms of closest approach distance of the spherical mass shell to the field point. Binomial Statistics is used to remedy this diminished statistical significance by providing a prescription for increasing the value of the Monte Carlo sample size needed to assure that the chosen precision remains invariant as the mass-shell geometry is changed

Detection of virus mRNA within infected host cells using an isothermal nucleic acid amplification assay: marine cyanophage gene expression within Synechococcus sp

Abstract Background Signal-Mediated Amplification of RNA Technology (SMART) is an isothermal nucleic acid amplification technology, developed for the detection of specific target sequences, either RNA (for expression) or DNA. Cyanophages are viruses that infect cyanobacteria. Marine cyanophages are ubiquitous in the surface layers of the ocean where they infect members of the globally important genus Synechococcus. Results Here we report that the SMART assay allowed us to differentiate between infected and non-infected host cultures. Expression of the cyanophage strain S-PM2 portal vertex gene (g20) was detected from infected host Synechococcus sp. WH7803 cells. Using the SMART assay, we demonstrated that g20 mRNA peaked 240 – 360 minutes post-infection, allowing us to characterise this as a mid to late transcript. g20 DNA was also detected, peaking 10 hours post-infection, coinciding with the onset of host lysis. Conclusion The SMART assay is based on isothermal nucleic acid amplification, allowing the detection of specific sequences of DNA or RNA. It was shown to be suitable for differentiating between virus-infected and non-infected host cultures and for the detection of virus gene expression: the first reported use of this technology for such applications.</p