Search results for "-Ag"
showing 10 items of 514 documents
Extortion, firm's size and the sectoral allocation of capital
2014
Extortion of firms is a typical activity of organized crime such as Mafia. We develop a simple principal-agent model to find the Mafia-optimal extortion as a function of firm’s observable characteristics, specifically firm’s size. We test the predictions of the model on a unique dataset on extortion in Sicily, the Italian region where Mafia is most active. Our empirical findings show that i) extortion moderately increases with firm’s size ii) extortion is regressive, the average extortion rate ranging from approximately 40% of operating profits for small firms to 2% for large firms iii) extortion turns average cost function decreasing, therefore influencing market competition
The Economics of Extortion: Theory and Evidence on the Sicilian Mafia
2019
This paper studies extortion of firms operating in legal sectors by a profit-maximizing criminal organization. We develop a simple principal-agent model under asymmetric information to find the Mafia-optimal extortion as a function of firms' observable characteristics, namely size and sector. We test the predictions of the model on a unique dataset on extortion in Sicily, the Italian region where the most powerful criminal organization, the Mafia, operates. In line with our theoretical model, our empirical findings show that extortion is strongly concave in firm's size and highly regressive. The percentage of profits appropriated by Mafia ranges from 40% for small firms to 2% for large firm…
Ortokeratoloģijas pielietojums miopijas progresēšanas kontrolei skolas vecuma bērniem
2017
Bakalaura darbs ir uzrakstīts latviešu valodā uz 36 lapām. Tas satur 25 attēlus, 1 tabulu un 20 literatūras avotus. Pētījuma mērķis ir nodemonstrēt, Ortho-K lēcu lietošana var palēlināt miopijas progresēšanu skolas vecuma bērniem, kuriem ir miopija. Pētījumā piedalījās 28 bērni (vidējais vecums 10 ± 2 gadi) ar vidējo miopijas lielumu -3,15 D ± 1,43 D (astigmātisms mazāks par 1,00 D) ārstēšanas sākumā. Miopijas progresēšana tika novērota vienu gadu pirms Ortho-K lēcu lietošanas un 3 gadus, lietojot Ortho-K lēcas. Rezultāti rāda, ka vidējais miopijas progresēšanas apjoms pirms Ortho-K lēcu lietošanas bija -0,86 D ± 0,53 D gada laikā un tas nozīmīgi (p << 0,0001) samazinājās līdz -0,04 D ± 0,1…
Cross-age effects on forensic face construction
2015
This work was supported in part by an award from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (RES-000-22-4150) to Dr Charity Brown and Dr Charlie Frowd The own-age bias (OAB) refers to recognition memory being more accurate for people of our own age than other age groups (e.g., Wright and Stroud, 2002). This paper investigated whether the OAB effect is present during construction of human faces (also known as facial composites, often for forensic/police use). In doing so, it adds to our understanding of factors influencing both facial memory across the life span as well as performance of facial composites. Participant-witnesses were grouped into younger (19-35 years) and older (51-80 years)…
TiO2/Ag2O immobilized on cellulose paper: A new floating system for enhanced photocatalytic and antibacterial activities
2021
Paper-TiO2-Ag2O floating photocatalysts were produced under mild condition and their photocatalytic activity for the degradation of aromatic amine under sunlight stimulant was investigated. Characterizations by Raman, XRD, XPS, DRS and PL confirmed the presence of TiO2 and Ag2O, and the morphology of the appended TiO2/Ag2O layer was probed by FE-SEM. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared samples was investigated by the degradation of aniline (AN) in water under simulated sun-light illumination and constrained conditions, i.e. non-stirring and non-oxygenation. The presence of Ag2O combined with TiO2 was shown to improve the resistance of paper to bacteria attack, thus increasing the du…
89 Zr-Immuno-Positron Emission Tomography in Oncology: State-of-the-Art 89 Zr Radiochemistry
2017
Contains fulltext : 181624.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Immuno-positron emission tomography (immunoPET) with (89)Zr-labeled antibodies has shown great potential in cancer imaging. It can provide important information about the pharmacokinetics and tumor-targeting properties of monoclonal antibodies and may help in anticipating on toxicity. Furthermore, it allows accurate dose planning for individualized radioimmunotherapy and may aid in patient selection and early-response monitoring for targeted therapies. The most commonly used chelator for (89)Zr is desferrioxamine (DFO). Preclinical studies have shown that DFO is not an ideal chelator because the (89)Zr-DFO complex is partly…
Structural characterization of Pd-Ag and Pd-Cu bimetallic catalysts by means of EXAFS, WAXS and XPS
2000
Bimetallic Pd-Ag and Pd-Cu pumice-supported catalysts have been synthesized following different preparation procedures with the aim of improving the selectivity and reactivity of monometallic Pd/pumice systems. The structural characterization, carried out by X-ray Diffraction, X-ray Absorption and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, allowed to investigate the importance of the preparation procedures in the alloy formation.
Use of asthma medication during pregnancy and risk of specific congenital anomalies: A European case-malformed control study.
2015
Background: Pregnant women with asthma need to take medication during pregnancy.Objective: We sought to identify whether there is an increased risk of specific congenital anomalies after exposure to antiasthma medication in the first trimester of pregnancy.Methods: We performed a population-based case-malformed control study testing signals identified in a literature review. Odds ratios (ORs) of exposure to the main groups of asthma medication were calculated for each of the 10 signal anomalies compared with registrations with nonchromosomal, nonsignal anomalies as control registrations. In addition, exploratory analyses were done for each nonsignal anomaly. The data set included 76,249 reg…
Social Psychology Of Persuasion Applied To Human-agent Interaction
2008
A bstract: This paper discusses and evaluates the application of a social psychologically enriched, user-centered approach to agent architecture design. The major aim is to facilitate human‐agent interaction () by making agents not only algorithmically more i ntelligent but also socially more skillful in communicating with the user. A decision-making model and communicative argumentation strategies have been incorporated into the agent architecture. In the presented content resource management experiments, enhancement of human task performance is demonstrated for users that are supported by a persuasive agent. This superior performance seems to be rooted in a more trusting collaborative rel…
Compression of Silver Sulfide: X-ray Diffraction Measurements and Total-Energy Calculations
2012
[EN] Angle-dispersive X-ray diffraction measurements have been performed in acanthite, Ag2S, up to 18 GPa in order to investigate its high-pressure structural behavior. They have been complemented by ab initio electronic structure calculations. From our experimental data, we have determined that two different high-pressure phase transitions take place at 5 and 10.5 GPa. The first pressure-induced transition is from the initial anti-PbCl2-like monoclinic structure (space group P2(1)/n) to an orthorhombic Ag2Se-type structure (space group P2(1)2(1)2(1)). The compressibility of the lattice parameters and the equation of state of both phases have been determined. A second phase transition to a …