On-surface and Subsurface Adsorption of Oxygen on Stepped Ag(210) and Ag(410) Surfaces

The adsorption of atomic oxygen and its inclusion into subsurface sites on Ag(210) and Ag(410) surfaces have been investigated using density functional theory. We find that--in the absence of adatoms on the first metal layer--subsurface adsorption results in strong lattice distortion which makes it energetically unfavoured. However subsurface sites are significantly stabilised when a sufficient amount of O adatoms is present on the surface. At high enough O coverage on the Ag(210) surface the mixed on-surface + subsurface O adsorption is energetically favoured with respect to the on-surface only adsorption. Instead, on the Ag(410) surface, at the coverage we have considered (3/8 ML), the existence of stable terrace sites makes the subsurface O incorporation less favourable. These findings are compatible with the results of recent HREEL experiments which have actually motivated this work.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures and 1 tabl

Sex hormones in allergic conjunctivitis: altered levels of circulating androgens and estrogens in children and adolescents with vernal keratoconjunctivitis

PURPOSE: Vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) is a chronic allergic disease mainly affecting boys in prepubertal age and usually recovering after puberty. To evaluate a possible role of sex hormones in VKC, serum levels of sex hormones in children and adolescents with VKC were assessed. METHODS: 12 prepubertal and 7 early pubertal boys with active VKC and 6 male patients with VKC in remission phase at late pubertal age and 48 healthy age and sex-matched subjects were included. Serum concentration of estrone, 17 beta-estradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate, total testosterone and free testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), cortisol, delta-4-androstenedione, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, and sex-hormones binding globuline (SHBG) were evaluated. RESULTS: Serum levels of Estrone were significantly increased in all groups of patients with VKC when compared to healthy controls (P < 0.001). Prepubertal and early pubertal VKC showed a significant decrease in DHT (P = 0.007 and P = 0.028, resp.) and SHBG (P = 0.01 and P = 0.002, resp.) when compared to controls and serum levels of SHBG were increased in late pubertal VKC in remission phase (P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: VKC patients have different circulating sex hormone levels in different phases of the disease and when compared to nonallergic subjects. These findings suggest a role played by sex hormones in the pathogenesis and/or activity of VKC

The role of venture capital in the emerging entrepreneurial finance ecosystem: future threats and opportunities

The last decade has seen the emergence of alternative sources of early-stage finance, which are radically changing and reshaping the start-up eco-system. These include incubators, accelerators, science and technology parks, university-affiliated seed funds, corporate seed funds, business angels \u2013 including \u201csuper-angels\u201d, angel groups, business angel networks and angel investment funds \u2013 and both equity- and debt-based crowdfunding platforms. In parallel with this development, large financial institutions that have traditionally invested in late-stage and mature companies, have increasingly diversified their investment portfolios to \u201cget into the venture game\u201d, in some cases, through the traditional closed-end funds model and, in other cases through direct investments and coinvestments alongside the closed-end funds. This paper reviews the main features, investment policies and risk-return profiles of the institutional and informal investors operating in the very early stage of the life cycle of entrepreneurial firms. It concludes that traditional closed-end venture capital funds continue to play an important role in early stage finance because of their unique competences (e.g. screening, negotiating and monitoring) in what has become a wider and more complex financing ecosystem

the importance of inhaler devices in the treatment of copd

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) represents a socio-economic burden and requires regular and ongoing treatment. Inhalation therapy is recommended at all stages of the disease and allows the delivery of active molecules directly to the target site of action, whilst minimising adverse side-effects. Inhalers therefore play a crucial role in the effective management of patients with COPD and their choice is as important as that of the drug. The three most important factors that influence inhaled drug deposition within the airways are the patient's inhalation flow, the aerosol velocity, and the inhaled drug particle size. These ultimately impact on the amount of drug reaching the target site and therefore the functional and clinical responses of the patient. Furthermore, patients' training and education in the use of inhalers have been shown to be directly related to the efficacy of the therapy. However, in daily clinical practice, too little consideration is given to the features of the different inhalers and to the ability of patients to properly handle the device, and precise recommendations are greatly needed to help healthcare professionals to advise and prescribe the most 'appropriate' inhaled drug/device product. The present review aims to provide the latest evidence on the importance of the inhaler device in the management of patients with COPD

Exact Ward-Takahashi identity for the lattice N=1 Wess-Zumino model

The lattice Wess-Zumino model written in terms of the Ginsparg-Wilson relation is invariant under a generalized supersymmetry transformation which is determined by an iterative procedure in the coupling constant. By studying the associated Ward-Takahashi identity up to order $g^2$ we show that this lattice supersymmetry automatically leads to restoration of continuum supersymmetry without fine tuning. In particular, the scalar and fermion renormalization wave functions coincide.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Talk given at QG05, Cala Gonone, Sardinia, Italy. 12-16 September 200

Emerging trends in entrepreneurial finance

The emergence of new sources of financing in the aftermath of the financial crisis has substantially increased the funding options available to new entrepreneurial ventures. Technology parks, startup incubators and accelerators, business angels and angel investment organizations, equity crowdfunding platforms, venture capital funds, corporate seed funds and institutional investors directly investing in new ventures, have significantly increased the menu of funding channels, in many cases by leveraging the disrupting effects of Fintech companies and the emergence of internet-based segments of the capital market. As a consequence, a new financing eco-system for new ventures has emerged in recent years that has significant implications for both investors and entrepreneurs, impacting on entrepreneurial growth paths and creating new policy challenges at both the national and global scales. The substantially larger set of funding channels has not only been instrumental in the unprecedented growth in the number of early stage companies but has also raised new questions that have challenged scholars and practitioners and policymakers alike. Idiosyncratic risk-return profiles and investment philosophies, unorthodox investment practices, innovative value-adding contributions to portfolio companies ventures and structurally different exit options are some of the areas that require urgent investigation. The first \u201cEmerging Trends in Entrepreneurial Finance\u201d Conference, 1\u20132 June 2017 organized by the Stevens School of Business, the University of Piemonte Orientale and the Editors of Venture Capital: an International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance at the Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, NJ, USA) with the sponsorship of Hanlon Financial Systems Center and the Stevens Venture Center, aimed at gathering world-class scholars in the field of entrepreneurial finance to stimulate a debate on the evolution of the financing ecosystem for new ventures. From the close to 75 submissions, of which 16 were accepted for presentation. the Guest Editors of this special Issue have selected six outstanding papers that address crucial topics and recent developments

Exact Flow Equations and the U(1)-Problem

The effective action of a SU(N)-gauge theory coupled to fermions is evaluated at a large infrared cut-off scale k within the path integral approach. The gauge field measure includes topologically non-trivial configurations (instantons). Due to the explicit infrared regularisation there are no gauge field zero modes. The Dirac operator of instanton configurations shows a zero mode even after the infrared regularisation, which leads to U_A(1)-violating terms in the effective action. These terms are calculated in the limit of large scales k.Comment: 22 pages, latex, no figures, with stylistic changes and some arguments streamlined, typos corrected, References added, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Building China's municipal healthcare performance evaluation system: a Tuscan perspective

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Periodic Instantons in SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs Theory

The properties of periodic instanton solutions of the classical SU(2) gauge theory with a Higgs doublet field are described analytically at low energies, and found numerically for all energies up to and beyond the sphaleron energy. Interesting new classes of bifurcating complex periodic instanton solutions to the Yang-Mills-Higgs equations are described.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures (in 5 included eps files), ReVTeX (minor typos corrected and reference added

The beta functions of a scalar theory coupled to gravity

We study a scalar field theory coupled to gravity on a flat background, below Planck's energy. Einstein's theory is treated as an effective field theory. Within the context of Wilson's renormalization group, we compute gravitational corrections to the beta functions and the anomalous dimension of the scalar field, taking into account threshold effects.Comment: 13 pages, plainTe