Revenue Ruling 94-38: The Uncertainty Continues - A Look at Using the Tax Code to Effectuate Environmental Remediation

Environmental remediation costs have a significant financial impact on both industry and government. It has been estimated that the costs of complete environmental remediation could run as high as one trillion dollars. Furthermore, the tax treatment of these costs may vary the total cost by more than a third. Thus, the tax treatment of environmental clean-up costs will have a tremendous financial impact on both the taxpayer and the United States Treasury. In an attempt to alleviate uncertainty surrounding the tax treatment of environmental remediation costs, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Revenue Ruling 94-38 on June 3, 1994. However, since its issuance, there has been a question whether Revenue Ruling 94-38 was a step in the right direction with respect to the tax treatment of environmental clean-up costs, leaving behind the uncertainty created by Technical Advice Memoranda (TAMs), also known as Private Letter Rulings, 92-40-004, 93-15-004, and 94-11-002. This Article concludes that Revenue Ruling 94-38 did not accomplish this, so the question remains and the uncertainty lingers

Effect of pruning-derived biochar on heavy metals removal and water dynamics

Biomass-derived biochar is considered as a promising heavy metal adsorbent, due to abundance of polar functional groups, such as carboxylic, hydroxyl, and amino groups, which are available for heavy metal removal. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of an orchard pruning-derived biochar in removing some heavy metals (through the evaluation of isotherms) and to study water dynamics at the solid-liquid interface as affected by heavy metal adsorption (through an innovative nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry approach). Both isotherms and NMR spectra revealed that Pb and Cr showed a good affinity for the biochar surface (Pb > Cr), while Cu was less affine. Accordingly, higher amounts of Pb and Cr were adsorbed by biochar as compared to those of Cu in the single systems. In binary systems (i.e., when two metals were applied simultaneously), Pb showed the highest inhibition of the adsorption of the other two metals, whereas the opposite was evidenced when Cu was used; the competitive adsorption was also strongly influenced by the metal residence time on biochar surface. In ternary systems (i.e., when all metals were applied simultaneously), even in the presence of high amounts of Pb and Cr, considerable adsorption of Cu occurred, indicating that some biochar adsorption sites were highly specific for a single metal

Statistical image processing for the detection of dermoscopic criteria

An image based system implementing a well-known diagnostic method is disclosed for the automatic detection of melanomas as support to clinicians. The software procedure is able to recognize automatically the skin lesion within the digital image, measure morphological and chromatic feature, carry out a suitable classification for the detection of structural dermoscopic criteria provided by the 7-Point Check List. Experimental results about the adoption of statistical techniques applied to the border detection, feature extraction and classification as well as the resulting diagnostic score are described with reference to a large image set. Copyright © 2011 by the International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO) All rights reserved

Nesfatin-1

In this article, we review on the current concepts about Nesfatin-1 as a new anti-obesity treatment and evaluate the existing issues in the context of this knowledge and the available literature. The intent is to enable clinicians to know Nesfatin-1 as a new anti-obesity treatment and make rational decisions based on this perspective as possible clinical application. Future research should seek to clarify whether Nesfatin-1 would be beneficial in the management of obesity

Secretory Leukoprotease Inhibitor (Slpi) Expression Is Required for Educating Murine Dendritic Cells Inflammatory Response Following Quercetin Exposure

Dendritic cells’ (DCs) ability to present antigens and initiate the adaptive immune response confers them a pivotal role in immunological defense against hostile infection and, at the same time, immunological tolerance towards harmless components of the microbiota. Food products can modulate the inflammatory status of intestinal DCs. Among nutritionally-derived products, we investigated the ability of quercetin to suppress inflammatory cytokines secretion, antigen presentation, and DCs migration towards the draining lymph nodes. We recently identified the Slpi expression as a crucial checkpoint required for the quercetin-induced inflammatory suppression. Here we demonstrate that Slpi-KO DCs secrete a unique panel of cytokines and chemokines following quercetin exposure. In vivo, quercetin-enriched food is able to induce Slpi expression in the ileum, while little effects are detectable in the duodenum. Furthermore, Slpi expressing cells are more frequent at the tip compared to the base of the intestinal villi, suggesting that quercetin exposure could be more efficient for DCs projecting periscopes in the intestinal lumen. These data suggest that quercetin-enriched nutritional regimes may be efficient for suppressing inflammatory syndromes affecting the ileo-colonic tract

Film-Induced Tourism, City-Branding and Place-Based Image: the Cityscape of Naples between Authenticity and Conflicts

The paper aims at analysing the connections between film-induced tourism, city-branding and place-based image through the case-study of Naples, particularly deepening the role played by urban policies not only in promoting or sustaining but also in refusing some specific city’s representations. In the first part we will explore this relationship focusing the attention on the changing representations of the city in films and on the changes produced by the urban policies carried out in the phase of so-called Neapolitan Renaissance. The second part will be dedicated to deepen the link between the images of the city conveyed by the media and the touristic sector, emphasizing the role of the official representations and of the Campania Region Film Commission. The third part of the paper will focus on the conflicts involving the urban actors about the existence of a potential link between some negative representations of the periodical crisis of the city (for garbage, organized crime and difficulties in the administrative management) and tourist flows. We will argue that the duplicity of representations proposes in a new way the traditional dual image of the Neapolitan cityscape, inspiring by a different notion of “authenticity”.L’articolo si propone di analizzare le connessioni tra film-induced tourism, city branding e immagine place-based attraverso il caso studio di Napoli, in particolare approfondendo il ruolo assunto dalle politiche urbane non solo nel promuovere e sostenere ma anche nel rifiutare alcune specifiche rappresentazioni della città. Nella prima parte esploreremo questa relazione focalizzando l’attenzione sulle rappresentazioni mutevoli della città nei film e sui cambiamenti prodotti dalle politiche urbane portate avanti nella fase del cosiddetto Rinascimento napoletano. La seconda parte sarà dedicata ad approfondire il legame tra le immagini della città veicolate dai media e il settore turistico, enfatizzando il ruolo delle rappresentazioni ufficiali e della Film Commission Regione Campania. La terza parte si concentrerà sui conflitti che coinvolgono gli attori urbani intorno all'esistenza di un legame tra alcune rappresentazioni negative delle crisi periodiche della città (causate dalla spazzatura, dalla criminalità organizzata e delle difficoltà nella gestione amministrativa) e i flussi turistici. Sosterremo che l’attuale duplicità di rappresentazioni propone in modo nuovo la tradizionale immagine duale del paesaggio urbano napoletano, ispirandosi ad una differente nozione di “autenticità”.

MAT 95: Problem Solving Process and Strategies

Covers fundamentals and application of four steps of Problem Solving. Includes a problem solving strategy with a hands-on problems

A Statistical Approach for Improving the Performance of a Testing Methodology for Measurement Software

This paper describes the significant enhancements brought to an original methodology designed for testing measurement software. In a previous paper, the authors proposed a blackbox seven-step procedure that allows the functional verification of complex instrument software to be performed. The main features of the procedure are concerned with the following: 1) the ability of reproducing actual correlations among the software inputs and 2) the need for a limited number of test cases.Making use of innovative statistical techniques, themethodology performance and reliability have been enhanced. Two further steps have been added with the aim of improving the correlation coefficient assessments and providing the estimations with a confidence level. Finally, a new strategy has been studied to optimize the number of test cases. The effects of the new solutions on the performance of the methodology are evaluated by applying the procedure to a complex softwaremodule employed in an automotive system. A comparison with the previous methodology version is also reported