scholarly journals Dynamic Certification and Reputation for Quality

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Marinovic ◽  
Andrzej Skrzypacz ◽  
Felipe Varas
Keyword(s):  
High Quality ◽  
Certification Standards ◽  
Industry Certification ◽  
First Time

We study firm's incentives to build and maintain reputation for quality, when quality is persistent and can be certified at a cost. We characterize all reputation-dependent MPEs. They vary in frequency of certification and payoffs. Low payoffs arise in equilibria because of over-certification traps. We contrast the MPEs with the highest payoff equilibria. Industry certification standards can help firms coordinate on such good equilibria. The optimal equilibria allow firms to maintain high quality forever, once it is reached for the first time. They are either lenient or harsh, endowing firms with multiple or one chance to improve and certify quality. (JEL D21, D43, D83, L13, L15)

Disability as a social phenomenon

2020 ◽  
pp. 22-38
Author(s):  
Natalia Guseva ◽  
Vitaliy Berdutin
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Stage Model ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Rehabilitation Programs ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Consistent Solution ◽  
First Time

At present, the problem of establishing disability is a point at issue in Russia. Despite the fact that medical criteria for disability are being developed very actively, high-quality methods for assessing social hallmarks are still lacking. Since disability is a phenomenon inherent in any society, each state forms a social and economic policy for people with disabilities in accordance with its level of development, priorities and opportunities. We have proposed a three-stage model, which includes a system for the consistent solution of the main tasks aimed at studying the causes and consequences of the problems encountered today in the social protection of citizens with health problems. The article shows why the existing approaches to the determination of disability and rehabilitation programs do not correspond to the current state of Russian society and why a decrease in the rate of persons recognized as disabled for the first time does not indicate an improvement in the health of the population. The authors proposed a number of measures with a view to correcting the situation according to the results of the study.

Precursor engineering for high-quality Cs2AgBiBr6 films toward efficient lead-free double perovskite solar cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Hou ◽  
Wenxiang Yang ◽  
Ning Wan ◽  
Zhi Fang ◽  
Jinju Zheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Perovskite Solar Cells ◽  
Control Sample ◽  
Double Perovskite ◽  
Lead Free ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Precursor Engineering ◽  
First Time

We report a facile BiBr3(DMSO)2 adduct process to produce high-quality Cs2AgBiBr6 films with large grains for the first time, which leads to an enhancement of over 40% on the PCE of Cs2AgBiBr6-based solar cells compared to that of the control sample.

scholarly journals A Novel and Efficient High-Yield Method for Preparing Bacterial Ghosts

Toxins ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 420
Author(s):  
Yi Ma ◽  
Liu Cui ◽  
Meng Wang ◽  
Qiuli Sun ◽  
Kaisheng Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Expression System ◽  
High Yield ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Efficient Protection ◽  
Bacterial Ghosts ◽  
Cell Envelopes ◽  
Extracellular Structures ◽  
First Time

Bacterial ghosts (BGs) are empty cell envelopes possessing native extracellular structures without a cytoplasm and genetic materials. BGs are proposed to have significant prospects in biomedical research as vaccines or delivery carriers. The applications of BGs are often limited by inefficient bacterial lysis and a low yield. To solve these problems, we compared the lysis efficiency of the wild-type protein E (EW) from phage ΦX174 and the screened mutant protein E (EM) in the Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) strain. The results show that the lysis efficiency mediated by protein EM was improved. The implementation of the pLysS plasmid allowed nearly 100% lysis efficiency, with a high initial cell density as high as OD600 = 2.0, which was higher compared to the commonly used BG preparation method. The results of Western blot analysis and immunofluorescence indicate that the expression level of protein EM was significantly higher than that of the non-pLysS plasmid. High-quality BGs were observed by SEM and TEM. To verify the applicability of this method in other bacteria, the T7 RNA polymerase expression system was successfully constructed in Salmonella enterica (S. Enterica, SE). A pET vector containing EM and pLysS were introduced to obtain high-quality SE ghosts which could provide efficient protection for humans and animals. This paper describes a novel and commonly used method to produce high-quality BGs on a large scale for the first time.

scholarly journals Unraveling the long-pursued Au144 structure by x-ray crystallography

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. eaat7259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Yan ◽  
Nan Xia ◽  
Lingwen Liao ◽  
Min Zhu ◽  
Fengming Jin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Metal Nanoparticles ◽  
Weak Interactions ◽  
Gold Nanoclusters ◽  
Atomic Level ◽  
High Quality ◽  
X Ray ◽  
X Ray Crystallography ◽  
Quantum Size ◽  
First Time

The transition from nanocluster to nanocrystal is a central issue in nanoscience. The atomic structure determination of metal nanoparticles in the transition size range is challenging and particularly important in understanding the quantum size effect at the atomic level. On the basis of the rationale that the intra- and interparticle weak interactions play critical roles in growing high-quality single crystals of metal nanoparticles, we have reproducibly obtained ideal crystals of Au144(SR)60 and successfully solved its structure by x-ray crystallography (XRC); this structure was theoretically predicted a decade ago and has long been pursued experimentally but without success until now. Here, XRC reveals an interesting Au12 hollow icosahedron in thiolated gold nanoclusters for the first time. The Au–Au bond length, close to that of bulk gold, shows better thermal extensibility than the other Au–Au bond lengths in Au144(SR)60, providing an atomic-level perspective because metal generally shows better thermal extensibility than nonmetal materials. Thus, our work not only reveals the mysterious, long experimentally pursued structure of a transition-sized nanoparticle but also has important implications for the growth of high-quality, single-crystal nanoparticles, as well as for the understanding of the thermal extensibility of metals from the perspective of chemical bonding.

scholarly journals REPRODUCING QUALITIES OF RAMS OF THE MOLDOVAN TYPE KARAKUL BREED

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 92-96
Author(s):  
D. Rotari
Keyword(s):  
Sperm Count ◽  
Sperm Concentration ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Sperm Production ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Average Percentage ◽  
Reproductive Ability ◽  
First Time

Issues related to the reproduction of animals have been and remain one of the most complex and relevant problems of biology and are constantly finding a direct and effective way out into livestock farming practice. The rational use of breeding sheep as producers is limited by the lack of standard, objective methods and methods for the timely assessment of their reproductive ability. The article presents the results of evaluating the sperm production of rams-producers. For the first time, the freshly obtained sperm of rams of Moldavian type producers of the Karakul breed was evaluated using the macroscopic method - ejaculate volume, color and smell, as well as the microscopic method - motility, sperm concentration in the ejaculate, total sperm count in the ejaculate sperm movements (VAP; VSL and VCL) as well as the percentage of abnormal forms of sperm. The experiments were carried out on sheep producers grown on a pedigree farm of the experimental farm of the Moldavian Scientific and Practical Institute of Biotechnology in Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine. As a result of the studies, it was found that the ejaculate volume on average was 0.99 ± 0.04 ml, motility was 0.95 ± 0.02 and sperm concentration 1.51 ± 0.14 billion/ml. The percentage of pathological forms in sperm averaged 13.72 ± 0.61, an indicator that characterizes the high quality of sperm. The average quality indicator of ejaculates obtained from ram-producers of the Moldavian type of the Karakul breed corresponds to physiological standards for the Karakul breed. The average percentage of pathological forms of sperm found in ejaculates indicates that the rams were in good conditions of feeding and keeping. According to research, we can say that the Moldovan type of Karakul rams can be successfully used to obtain high quality ejaculates suitable for freezing sperm at 196°C.

Establishment of evaluation criteria for the development of high quality ERα-targeted fluorescent probes

The Analyst ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 145 (18) ◽  
pp. 5989-5995
Author(s):  
Qiuyu Meng ◽  
Xiaoyu Ma ◽  
Baohua Xie ◽  
Xiaofei Deng ◽  
Jian Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fluorescent Probes ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
High Quality ◽  
First Time ◽  
Mcf 7

ERα targeting fluorescent probes are important tools for ERα study. Two ERα targeting fluorescent probes were developed, which exhibited better performance in MCF-7 cells. Moreover, the probes were used for the first time to study the ERα motion.

scholarly journals Assessing 5 years of GOSAT Proxy XCH<sub>4</sub> data and associated uncertainties

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 4785-4801 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Parker ◽  
H. Boesch ◽  
K. Byckling ◽  
A. J. Webb ◽  
P. I. Palmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Posteriori Error ◽  
Maximum Deviation ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Validation Data ◽  
A Posteriori Error ◽  
Surface Measurements ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time ◽  
Surface Observations

Abstract. We present 5 years of GOSAT XCH4 retrieved using the "proxy" approach. The Proxy XCH4 data are validated against ground-based TCCON observations and are found to be of high quality with a small bias of 4.8 ppb (∼ 0.27 %) and a single-sounding precision of 13.4 ppb (∼ 0.74 %). The station-to-station bias (ameasure of the relative accuracy) is found to be 4.2 ppb. For the first time the XCH4 / XCO2 ratio component of the Proxy retrieval is validated (bias of 0.014 ppb ppm−1 (∼ 0.30 %), single-sounding precision of 0.033 ppb ppm−1 (∼ 0.72 %)). The uncertainty relating to the model XCO2 component of the Proxy XCH4 is assessed through the use of an ensemble of XCO2 models. While each individual XCO2 model is found to agree well with the TCCON validation data (r = 0.94–0.97), it is not possible to select one model as the best from our comparisons. The median XCO2 value of the ensemble has a smaller scatter against TCCON (a standard deviation of 0.92 ppm) than any of the individual models whilst maintaining a small bias (0.15 ppm). This model median XCO2 is used to calculate the Proxy XCH4 with the maximum deviation of the ensemble from the median used as an estimate of the uncertainty. We compare this uncertainty to the a posteriori retrieval error (which is assumed to reduce with sqrt(N)) and find typically that the model XCO2 uncertainty becomes significant during summer months when the a posteriori error is at its lowest due to the increase in signal related to increased summertime reflected sunlight. We assess the significance of these model and retrieval uncertainties on flux inversion by comparing the GOSAT XCH4 against modelled XCH4 from TM5-4DVAR constrained by NOAA surface observations (MACC reanalysis scenario S1-NOAA). We find that for the majority of regions the differences are much larger than the estimated uncertainties. Our findings show that useful information will be provided to the inversions for the majority of regions in addition to that already provided by the assimilated surface measurements.

scholarly journals A Structural Model of the Retail Market for Illicit Drugs

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (3) ◽  
pp. 858-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manolis Galenianos ◽  
Alessandro Gavazza
Keyword(s):  
Illicit Drugs ◽  
Structural Model ◽  
Crack Cocaine ◽  
Retail Market ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Using Data ◽  
First Time ◽  
Relative Profitability

We estimate a model of illicit drugs markets using data on purchases of crack cocaine. Buyers are searching for high-quality drugs, but they determine drugs' quality (i.e., their purity) only after consuming them. Hence, sellers can rip off first-time buyers or can offer higher-quality drugs to induce buyers to purchase from them again. In equilibrium, a distribution of qualities persists. The estimated model implies that if drugs were legalized, in which case purity could be regulated and hence observable, the average purity of drugs would increase by approximately 20 percent and the dispersion would decrease by approximately 80 percent. Moreover, increasing penalties may raise the purity and affordability of the drugs traded by increasing sellers' relative profitability of targeting loyal buyers versus first-time buyers. (JEL D12, K42, L15, L65)

The Blood And Clot Thrombectomy Registry And Collaboration (BACTRAC) protocol: novel method for evaluating human stroke

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin F Fraser ◽  
Lisa A Collier ◽  
Amy A Gorman ◽  
Sarah R Martha ◽  
Kathleen E Salmeron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ischemic Stroke ◽  
Animal Models ◽  
Mechanical Thrombectomy ◽  
Tissue Banking ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Molecular Response ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Arterial Blood ◽  
First Time

BackgroundIschemic stroke research faces difficulties in translating pathology between animal models and human patients to develop treatments. Mechanical thrombectomy, for the first time, offers a momentary window into the changes occurring in ischemia. We developed a tissue banking protocol to capture intracranial thrombi and the blood immediately proximal and distal to it.ObjectiveTo develop and share a reproducible protocol to bank these specimens for future analysis.MethodsWe established a protocol approved by the institutional review board for tissue processing during thrombectomy (www.clinicaltrials.govNCT03153683). The protocol was a joint clinical/basic science effort among multiple laboratories and the NeuroInterventional Radiology service line. We constructed a workspace in the angiography suite, and developed a step-by-step process for specimen retrieval and processing.ResultsOur protocol successfully yielded samples for analysis in all but one case. In our preliminary dataset, the process produced adequate amounts of tissue from distal blood, proximal blood, and thrombi for gene expression and proteomics analyses. We describe the tissue banking protocol, and highlight training protocols and mechanics of on-call research staffing. In addition, preliminary integrity analyses demonstrated high-quality yields for RNA and protein.ConclusionsWe have developed a novel tissue banking protocol using mechanical thrombectomy to capture thrombus along with arterial blood proximal and distal to it. The protocol provides high-quality specimens, facilitating analysis of the initial molecular response to ischemic stroke in the human condition for the first time. This approach will permit reverse translation to animal models for treatment development.

Waterbug Book

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gooderham ◽  
Edward Tsyrlin
Keyword(s):  
Reliable Indicator ◽  
Basic Information ◽  
Freshwater Macroinvertebrates ◽  
River Health ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Accurate Identification ◽  
Science Book ◽  
Identification Guide ◽  
First Time ◽  
Signal Method

Freshwater macroinvertebrates provide a useful and reliable indicator of the health of our rivers, streams, ponds and wetlands. As environmental awareness within the community increases, there is an increasing interest in the need to assess the health of our local waterways and school curriculums are changing to reflect this important ecological trend. The Waterbug Book provides a comprehensive and accurate identification guide for both professionals and non-professionals. It contains an easy-to-use key to all the macroinvertebrate groups and, for the first time, high quality colour photographs of live specimens. It provides a wealth of basic information on the biology of macroinvertebrates, and describes the SIGNAL method for assessing river health. The Waterbug Book is full of practical tips about where to find various animals, and what their presence can tell about their environment. Winner of the 2003 Eureka Science Book Prize and the 2003 Whitley Medal.

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