147 research outputs found
Metal Organic Frameworks for Gas-phase Capacitive Sensing
No full textOLD ChemE/Organic Materials and Interface
Agricultural trade liberalization in the Uruguay Round : one step forward, one step back?
Get PDFAfter evaluating the Uruguay Round's impact on agriculture and border protection in the next decade, the author concludes that while there was significant reform of the rules - particularly the conversion of nontariff barriers into tariffs and the reduction and binding of all tariffs - in practice, trade will probably be liberalized less than expected. The objective of the Round was to reverse protectionism and remove trade distortions. This may not be achieved in practice, at least not until further reductions are carried out in future rounds of negotiations. The major exception to this conclusion is in high-income Asian countries, where protection for major commodities will be significantly reduced. The tariffication and binding of all tariffs on agricultural products represents a significant step forward. Liberalization is implicit because countries are prohhibited from arbitrarily raising tariffs to new higher levels. But many of the newly established tariffs are so high in many countries as to effectively prohibit trade. Patterns of liberalization vary considerably by commodity and by country. Generally, the extent of liberalization was diminished by binding tariffs to the base period of 1986-88, when border protection was at a high point. In most OECD countries, this was worsened by"dirty tariffication:"the new base tariffs offered even greater protection than the nontariff barriers they replaced. Even after the commitments to tariff reductions in the Round, the ad valorem measure of the final binding tariffs will remain higher than the average rate of protection in 1982-93. A number of developing countries in East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East chose to lock in prior liberalization efforts on some products. But for most commodities, there will be little actual liberalization, since most developing countries chose to bind their tariffs at a maximum level. Even when countries reduced already-bound rates, bound tariffs remained significantly higher than current applied rates, giving countries the flexibility to raise tariffs later. The high level of bound tariffs may allow countries to apply variable tariffs below the bound level, thus failing to stabilize tariffs and improve market access. Moreover, the Round did not touch many of the worst distortions in developing countries, such as import subsidies, export taxes, state-trading monopolies, and domestic policies that implicitly tax agriculture.Trade Policy,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Export Competitiveness,Rules of Origin,Trade Policy,Rules of Origin,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research
Design of Low-Threshold Comparator for Improved Timing-Resolution Analog/Digital SiPM
No full textCoincidence time resolution (CTR) in time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) determines the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in iterative image reconstruction algorithms. In PET detectors, the photodetector's single-photon timing resolution (SPTR) influences the CTR by adding uncertainty to the single photoelectron time-of-arrivals. This effect can be modelled as the convolution of the scintillation pulse shape function and the total photodetector jitter at single-photon level, before following an order statistics process. Particularly in Cherenkov-based PET detectors, SPTR has a direct impacton the CTR due to the low number of detected photons. In this thesis, the research is focussed on the design of low thresh-old comparators for two specific purposes in PET. Firstly, the design of in-pixel (SPAD-cell) low-threshold comparator that improves SPAD jitter at the pixel level, since it allows the detection of photo-electron triggered avalanche at the earliest possible time, thus minimizing statistical fluctuations. The design is targeted for Cherenkov-based PET, where improvement in SPTR directly results in improvement of CTR. Secondly, for the integration of analog silicon photomultiplier (A-SiPM) on-chip. Such integration helps in realizing a high Photon Detection Effciency (PDE) and low Dark Count Rate (DCR) A-SiPM with integrated readout electronics. A high speed comparator with a direct connection to the fast terminal of A-SiPM has been realized.Electrical Engineering | Microelectronic
Sachdeva’s Ark: The imminent deluge of space crimes
No full textDeviation from accepted social standards of living has been a concern since the inception of society. Society, through its laws, has set a threshold of deviations, the crossing of which, whatsoever be the motivation for such imprudence, becomes behaviour that warrant attention and correction. G S Sachdeva, the author of the book under review, echoes this social truth about human nature, in the same vein and grandeur as David Hume, at the outset of his exposition, ‘Humans are after all human and wherever they go (…) And under stress or provocation, these [their human instincts] may burst open, criminally’ (p. vii). Does Sachdeva maintain this Humeanist elegance and eloquence that he displays at the start of his discourse through the rest of the book? In fact, Sachdeva, of everything he is and he is not, is thoroughly philosophical in his approach to things, which manifests as an irresistible desire to explore meanings and to provide explanations for the same. That perhaps qualifies him as a Humeanist
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