The effects of debt subsidies on corporate investment behavior

This paper argues that credit subsidies are ineffective in stimulating business investment in productive assets. Instead, they lead to an increase in corporate holdings of financial assets and real estate. For empirical verification, the investment patterns in a sample of 241 Korean corporations listed on the Korean Stock Exchange between 1984 and 1988 were examined. The authors found a significant positive relation between corporate speculative asset holding and access to subsidized loans. Their estimates indicate that without interest rate controls and other forms of subsidy, corporate holdings of speculative assets would have been one-seventh of observed levels. Moreover, most corporate real estate holdings appear to be unrelated to production activities. Little evidence is found that the Korean government's interest rate controls and credit allocation policy have accelerated expansion of corporate investment. If anything, the controls are partly to blame for the overheated Korean stock market during 1986-88.Economic Theory&Research,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Municipal Financial Management

MXenes as Flow Electrodes for Capacitive Deionization of Wastewater

The energy-water nexus poses an integrated research challenge, while opening up an opportunity space for the development of energy efficient technologies for water remediation. Capacitive Deionization (CDI) is an upcoming reclamation technology that uses a small applied voltage applied across electrodes to electrophoretically remove dissolved ionic impurities from wastewater streams. Similar to a supercapacitor, the ions are stored in the electric double layer of the electrodes. Reversing the polarity of applied voltage enables recovery of the removed ionic impurities, allowing for recycling and reuse. Simultaneous materials recovery and water reclamation makes CDI energy efficient and resource conservative, with potential to scale it up for industrial applications. The efficiency of the technology depends on the architectural design of the CDI cell, control of operating conditions, and the nature of the electrodes used. In this project we report on the performance of Ti3C2Tx MXenes flow electrodes in a CDI cell design. MXenes are a novel class of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides, nitrides and carbonitrides with the general formula Mn+1XnTx where M is an early transition metal, X is carbon and/or nitrogen, Tx represents the surface terminations. Ti3C2Tx MXenes synthesized at Boise State, were employed as a flow electrode solution in an established CDI cell for targeted and selective ion removal. Performance metrics of achieved adsorption capacity, ion removal efficiency, regeneration efficiency, energy consumption, and charge efficiency, exceed those of currently prevalent electrode systems. In addition, rheological properties of the Ti3C2Tx MXenes colloidal solution were evaluated. This work establishes the deionization performance of Ti3C2Tx MXene based flow electrodes while providing further insight towards understanding the effect of structure and surface functionalization on the resultant deionization efficiency

Plasma homocysteine, folate and vitamin B(12) compared between rural Gambian and UK adults.

The disease risk indicator plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) is influenced by genetic and environmental factors, including folate and vitamin B(12) status. Little is known about the determinants of tHcy in rural West Africa. We explored the hypothesis that tHcy in rural Gambian adults might vary between the sexes and physiological groups, and/or with folate and vitamin B(12) status. Comparisons were made with a British national survey. Non-pregnant Gambian women (n 158) had tHcy concentrations (geometric mean 9.0 micromol/l) similar to those of non-pregnant UK women (n 449; 9.4 micromol/l), whereas pregnant Gambian women (n 12) had significantly lower values (6.2 micromol/l). Gambian men (n 22) had significantly higher values (14.7 micromol/l) than British men (n 354; 10.8 micromol/l). Gambian lactating women and British men and women exhibited significant inverse relationships between log(e)(tHcy) and folate status; however, only the British subjects exhibited significant inverse relationships between loge(tHcy) and vitamin B(12) status. In the British sample, and in Gambian lactating women, folate and vitamin B(12) status variations together accounted for 20-25 % of the variation in log(e)(tHcy). Within the UK, black-skinned adults had folate and tHcy levels similar to those of their white-skinned counterparts, but significantly higher vitamin B(12) values. We conclude that, whereas folate and vitamin B(12) status are similar between British and rural Gambian populations, tHcy is higher in Gambian men and lower in pregnant Gambian women, and that serum vitamin B(12) values appear to be higher in black-skinned than white-skinned British subjects. Possible reasons are discussed

Higgs Inflation, Quantum Smearing and the Tensor to Scalar Ratio

In cosmic inflation driven by a scalar gauge singlet field with a tree level Higgs potential, the scalar to tensor ratio r is estimated to be larger than 0.036, provided the scalar spectral index n_s >= 0.96. We discuss quantum smearing of these predictions arising from the inflaton couplings to other particles such as GUT scalars, and show that these corrections can significantly decrease r. However, for n_s >= 0.96, we obtain r >= 0.02 which can be tested by the Planck satellite.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures and 3 table

Design and evaluation of a new pharmaceutical pictogram sequence to convey medicine usage

Pictorials may be used to augment textual instructions in the depiction of safety and warning information on medicines. The objective of this study was to design, develop and evaluate a simple and culturally appropriate pictogram sequence for using nystatin suspension, and to assess its understandability in low-literate Xhosa participants. A new pharmaceutical pictogram sequence was designed through focus group discussions and evaluated in a 2-phase process. The results of Phase 1 (30 participants) identified various problems associated with the new pictogram sequence. It was modified accordingly and re-evaluated in Phase 2 with 20 participants. All participants belonged to the Xhosa group, had between 0 and 7 years of formal schooling and had English as their second language. Acceptance of the new pictogram sequence was based on international standards (ANSI and ISO criterion) for evaluating the comprehensibility of pictograms. In Phase 1, the new pictogram sequence was correctly interpreted by 66.7% of the participants and this complied with the ISO criterion of 67% correct. In Phase 2, 95% of the participants were able to correctly interpret the new pictogram sequence. This result complied with the ANSI criterion of 85% correct, therefore, this new pictogram sequence was considered to be acceptable. This study has illustrated the success of using a consultative approach in the design of new pictograms

KAJIAN KAMPANYE SOSIAL WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: THE LAST SELFIE

The cases of protecting endangered animals around the world are difficult to solve. Lack of public awareness of the survival of these animals become one of the contributing factors. Given the importance of the survival of these animals, World Wildlife Fund as a global fund-raising agency invitesDanish and turkey advertising agencies to create a social campaign where they invited millennials to donate their money to help the survival of endangered animals and comes up with #LastSelfie. It is social media based campaign using Snapchat which then integrated with other social media. This campaign generated 40,000 tweets in a week and meets donation goal in just three days. This is a descriptive explanative research which itspurpose is to find out whether #LastSelfie campaign through breaking the structure of campaign materials and depict its relationship with the aim of campaign based on copywriting and target audience Engagement Process in social media theory. Through the application of this concept which encompasses various aspects of the campaign, at the end of this writing, the authors concludes that #LastSelfie campaign corresponds to the process sequence of Engagement in social media — consuming, curation, creation, collaboration, through meticulous campaign naming, copywriting strategy, sharing among peers, and collaborative donation to help preserve endangered animals

The Definition of an Assessment Framework for Information Systems Issues for Agile Manufacturing

Information systems are identified as enablers of agile manufacturing. Despite the continuous utilisation of IT/IS applications, there is growing evidence that information technology/systems do not deliver their expected benefits. In this work we investigated three main issues related to information systems: competitive bases-general goals, development and infrastructure. We tested our approach with information gathered from 14 manufacturing companies based in the UK. The results of this work make it possible to link information systems to other dimensions of agility like competitive bases and agility attributes to define an assessment framework

Can clinical staging of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis be of any therapeutic benefit

Naegleria fowleri, is a free-living amoeba (FLA) known to infect humans and cause a fatal disease called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). All of the patients are commonly admitted to the emergency room (ER). Often, treatment in the ER is delayed due to the rarity of disease leading to a delay in the diagnosis and late arrival of patients to the ER. The attempts to reduce raised intracranial pressure and subsequent herniation of the brain stem are challenging and become the cause of death in the affected patients during their stay in ER. Use of drugs like mannitol to reduce raised intra-cerebral pressure (ICP) could prove dangerous in the presence of cerebral haemorrhage and this fact could be overlooked during the management of patients with PAM. No precise therapy is followed for PAM, and most often a course of broad spectrum anti-protozoal drugs is employed. A CDC recommended drug miltefosine has show success in early diagnosed cases. So far, there is no clinical staging of PAM, and patients are managed for the complications that develop while their stay in the ER. Given the health scare associated with N. fowleri in countries with tropical climates, and its potential ability to cause severe meningoencephalitis that often progresses to lethal outcomes, we believe it is imperative to stage PAM into clear progressive stages to help its management in the ER and debate its therapeutic gains. Such a clinical staging could aid in efforts to diagnose and treat PAM. Furthermore, it will help in raising public awareness, in educating healthcare and allied personne

Kajian Daya Tarik Visual pada Desain Karakter Pokémon

Pokémon is one of worldwide famous franchise content from Nintendo which released as game in 1996. The game series of Pokémon later massively developed into various entertainment content and media with wide range of merchandising. The basic content of Pokémon is character exploration in a set of world with emphasizing the relationship between Pokémon and its trainers. There are more than 600 Pokémon characters introduced to the public until 2012. The wide numbers of characters are developed in order to embrace the wide variety of audience's interests which are basically developed from imagination of animals and plants around the world. This study is developing understand on the real Pokémon character's point of visual interest through visual structure analysis based on character design theory. The 5th generation of Pokémon characters is the study object. The result of this study shows that combination of forms and colors which emphasize cute features are the basic ingredients of Pokémon character design. Those are the key visual elements of Pokémon's character design which gain audience's interest