2,345 research outputs found
Resolving the National Banking System note-issue puzzle
Under the National Banking System, 1863-1914, national banks that deposited sufficient collateral could issue notes provided they paid a tax on notes in circulation: 1 percent per year before 1900 and 1/2 percent thereafter. Because note issue was far below the allowed maximum, an arbitrage argument predicts that short-term nominal interest rates should have been bounded above by the tax rate. They were not. That is the note-issue puzzle. Our resolution takes the form of a model in which notes play a role, but in which the profitability of note issue is not tied to anything that resembles a market rate of interest.Bank notes ; National banks (United States)
Computer aided religious learning in a secular context
The CD-ROM opens up the possibility of a new approach to religious learning which is
particularly relevant to secular contexts. This thesis arises from the question of how a
public education system may respond appropriately to the religious dimension of life in a
plural society. Three main issues are considered: the nature of religious learning, the
ethical legitimacy of its provision in a secular context, and the feasibility of using
computers to assist in this learning. These issues are brought together in an experimental
study conducted across nine local authority primary schools in one Region of Scotland.Contemporary religious education in Scottish schools is set against its distinctive
historical background. Principal arguments connected with its theory and practice are
discussed, and a review is undertaken of what religion means today. The case for the
primacy of religious studies in schools is rejected and religious learning, understood as
world view formation, is proposed as both ethically acceptable and necessary for a fully
developed secular education. The relevant legislation as well as data collected from the
study both advance the argument that non-denominational does not equate easily with
religious, and might more appropriately be considered secular. It is in this context of
uncertainty about religious matters that the power of the interactive CD-ROM has a
special place.An original paradigm for world view analysis is proposed and discussed. From this
paradigm is derived a personal profiling instrument which is used to map the world views
of a normal sample of 808 children in the 9-12 years age range. These personal world views
are seen to have no statistically significant association with the subjects' experiences of
religion and attitudes to it. At the same time as generally valuing moral behaviour,
subjects appear to value religion less the more they know about it. As might be expected,
girls are seen to value caring more than justice, and boys justice more than caring. Girls,
however, also value justice more than boys.The paradigm also generated the conceptual framework for the CD-ROM whose
development is described and trial evaluated. Little doubt remains about the feasibility
of an interactive programme to aid religious learning, but its effectiveness is not fully
established in this study; several contributory factors external to the CD-ROM are
identified. Those taking part in the trial amplified the effect already identified of
simultaneously knowing more and caring less about religion. This result reinforces doubts
about the current focus on religious traditions in the school's religious and moral education
curriculum. The thesis is thought to have been satisfied in all essentials, and the need to
review the direction now being taken in non-denominational religious and moral education
is the main conclusion drawn
Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Unemployment Insurance from New York State
This paper examines unemployment duration and the incidence of claims following a 36 percent increase in the maximum weekly benefit in New York State. This benefit increase sharply increased benefits for a large group of claimants, while leaving them unchanged for a large share of claimants who provide a natural comparison group. The New York benefit increase has the special features that it was unexpected and applied to in-progress spells. These features allow the effects on duration to be convincingly separated from effects on incidence. The results show a sharp fall in the hazard of leaving UI that coincides with the increase in benefits. The evidence is also consistent with a substantial effect of the benefit level on the incidence of claims and with this change in incidence biasing duration estimates. The evidence further suggests that, at least in this case, standard methods that identify duration effects through nonlinearities in the benefit schedule are not badly biased.
Structural studies in the northern Chester Dome of East-Central Vermont
Rocks in the Eastern Vermont Sequence are highly metamorphosed and are said to range in age from Precambrian to Siluro-Devonian. The sequence outcrops on Keyes Mountain, about 6km Northwest of Felchville, Vermont, and an area on this mountain about 2km square was mapped in great detail. The dominant rock type found is quartzofeldspathic gneiss, but schistose gneiss, amphibolite, quartzite and schist also occur. Most of these rocks are layered but layering has been transposed in many places and much of it is probably secondary. Layering and schistosity both dip dominantly to the north at about 25Âș. A number of mesoscopic structures can be mapped, including folds, schistosity, lineations, boudinage and low-angle dislocations. Folds can be divided into three style groups - S.G. 1 : tight to isoclinal folds in layering with no axial-surface foliation. - S.G. 2 : open to isoclinal folds in layering and schistosity with weakly to strongly developed axial-surface foliation. - S.G. 3 : open to tight folds in layering and schistosity with no axial-surface foliation. Axial surfaces are usually at a high angle to foliation. On the basis of overprinting relationships, at least three generations of folds exist. First and second generations cannot be separated by style and are referred to as early folds ; most early folds are isoclinal. The third generation includes all S.G. 3 folds, although it is possible that more than one generation is present in S.G. 3. They are therefore referred to as late folds . Mesoscopic late folds plunge dominantly at 25Âș to 030, their axial surfaces dip steeply to the west. A large, open macroscopic late fold occupies the whole area and is probably similarly oriented to mesoscopic late folds. Mesoscopic early fold axes are redistributed on a partial small circle by late folding but are inferred to have had a strong preferred orientation in the foliation plane before this event. Evidence offered by previous workers for the interpretation of the Chester and other domes in Eastern Vermont as Christmas Tree folds is considered to be inadequate. An alternative model involving refolding of early folds by doubly-plunging late folds is favoured. Five units with boundaries parallel to schistosity were delineated, each with distinctive lithologic and structural characteristics. The structurally highest and lowest both fit published descriptions of basement. The central three units are characterised structurally by widespread transposition, intensely developed schistosity, and an abundance of low angle dislocations, boudinage and isoclinal folds. They are interpreted as a dislocation zone across which large relative displacements may have occured. The stratigraphic formations mapped by previous workers could not be recognized in this area ; all unit boundaries are thought to be structural ones and each unit is probably a structural rather than a stratigraphic entity. It is possible that this is true of other stratigraphic formations and boundaries in the Eastern Vermont sequence
Investigation into the dramatic arts programs, theater plants, and production attitudes of Montana high schools for the 1962-1963 school year
Characterization of Optical Frequency Transfer Over 154 km of Aerial Fiber
We present measurements of the frequency transfer stability and analysis of
the noise characteristics of an optical signal propagating over aerial
suspended fiber links up to 153.6 km in length. The measured frequency transfer
stability over these links is on the order of 10^-11 at an integration time of
one second dropping to 10^-12 for integration times longer than 100 s. We show
that wind-loading of the cable spans is the dominant source of short-timescale
noise on the fiber links. We also report an attempt to stabilize the optical
frequency transfer over these aerial links.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Optics Letter
Studies on the etiology, pathology, and control of guinea pig lymphadenitis
Call number: LD2668 .T4 1962 W8
Affinity of Arctomeles dimolodontus and other Old-World Badgers (Melinae: Mustelidae: Carnivora)
Mustelids, members of the weasel family, are the most species rich and ecologically diverse family within the order Carnivora. However, fossil mustelids are poorly understood due to their rarity in the fossil record. Fossils of âEurasianâ badgers in particular, subfamily Melinae, only include three stem and two crown genera: Arctomeles, Arctonyx, Ferinestrix, Meles, and Melodon. Today, melines are restricted to the Old World, but fossils of stem taxa have also been discovered in North America. Here, I discuss the occurrence of the fossil meline Arctomeles dimolodontus currently known only from the Gray Fossil Site of East Tennessee, USA, and its phylogenetic position within stem Melinae. A total of 34 dental characters across 8 taxa were selected because some taxa, such as Arctomeles sotnikovae and Ferinestrix vorax, are known only from teeth (or cranial fragments). A search of all possible trees using PAUP (set for maximum parsimony) yielded a single most parsimonious tree. Topology of that tree suggests that Ferinestrix is nested within crown group Melinae, rather than the stem group, and is the sister to extant Arctonyx, the hog badger. Results also suggest that Arctomeles sotnikovae does not group within the monophyletic clade formed by A. dimolodontus and A. pliocaenicus, but instead nests A. sotnikovae as a closely related, but separate, lineage to Melodon. Based on these findings, we propose that the ancestral stock of crown Melinae is more closely related to Arctomeles than Meles as previous research has suggested. Furthermore, the dental morphology within stem Melinae is relatively conservative for a generalized diet, although exceptions exist in some derived forms, such as Arctonyx and Ferinestrix, which may explain why PAUP nested the two as sister taxa. Arctonyx is an exclusively Old-World lineage, so it is likely that the Arctonyx-Ferinestrix clade had an Old-World origin, after which Ferinestrix migrated into North America and Arctonyx remained in the Old World. This begs the question: why do some melines migrate into North America while other contemporary forms do not? All stem meline genera have occurrences from Eurasia, yet only Arctomeles and Ferinestrix are known to have migrated into North America. This is likely because of the environmental constraints on where these different genera can live, but much remains unknown about the ecology of fossil melines to know for certain. Further study of this disparity can lead to a greater understanding of how the earthâs climate has changed since the Neogene and how this change impacts flora and fauna
The implementation of overdose prevention sites as a novel and nimble response during an illegal drug overdose public health emergency
Background Drug-related overdoses were declared a public health emergency in British Columbia, Canada in April, 2016 facilitating the scale-up of responses including rapid sanctioning and implementation of overdose prevention sites (OPSs). OPSs are a health service providing supervised injection and immediate overdose response. In BC, OPSs were operational within weeks of sanctioning. In the first year of operation over 20 OPSs were established with approximately 550,000 visits and no overdose deaths at any site. In this paper, we examine the implementation of OPSs as a novel and nimble response to prevent overdose deaths as a result of injection drug use. Methods A multiple case study design was used with the Consolidated Framework for Implementation (CFIR) informing the analysis. Three sites in a single city were included with each site constituting a case. In this paper, we focus on qualitative interviews with 15 staff and their perceptions of the implementation of the OPSs as well as provincial and local documents. Results The legislative process to implement OPSs was unprecedented as it sanctioned supervised injection services as an extraordinary measure under a declared public health emergency. Innovative and inclusionary practices were possible within state-sanctioned OPSs, as the sites were government-directed yet community-developed, with PWUD centred in service design, implementation and delivery. OPSs lack permanency and may be limited to the duration of the public health emergency. Conclusion The rapid implementation of OPSs provides an international example of an alternative to lengthy and often onerous sanctioning processes for supervised consumption services (SCSs). Overdose prevention sites provide an example of a novel service design and nimble implementation process that combines the benefits of state-sanctioned injection services with community-driven implementation. Such evidence questions the continued acceptability of governmentsâ restrictive sanctioning processes, which have limited expansion of SCSs internationally and the implementation of services that are not necessarily aligned with the needs of PWUD
Evidence for Past Subduction Earthquakes at a Plate Boundary with Widespread Upper Plate Faulting: Southern Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand
At the southern Hikurangi margin, New Zealand, we use salt marsh stratigraphy, sedimentology, micropaleontology, and radiocarbon dating to document evidence of two earthquakes producing coseismic subsidence and (in one case) a tsunami over the past 1000 yrs. The earthquake at 520-470 yrs before present (B.P.) produced 0.25 +/- 0.1 m of subsidence at Big Lagoon. The earthquake at 880-800 yrs B.P. produced 0.45 +/- 0.1 m of subsidence at Big Lagoon and was accompanied by a tsunami that inundated >= 360 m inland with a probable height of >= 3.3 m. Distinguishing the effects of upper plate faulting from plate interface earthquakes is a significant challenge at this margin. We use correlation with regional upper plate paleoearthquake chronologies and elastic dislocation modeling to determine that the most likely cause of the subsidence and tsunami events is subduction interface rupture, although the older event may have been a synchronous subduction interface and upper plate fault rupture. The southern Hikurangi margin has had no significant (M > 6.5) documented subduction interface earthquakes in historic times, and previous assumptions that this margin segment is prone to rupture in large to great earthquakes were based on seismic and geodetic evidence of strong contemporary plate coupling. This is the first geologic evidence to confirm that the southern Hikurangi margin ruptures in large earthquakes. The relatively short-time interval between the two subduction earthquakes (similar to 350 yrs) is shorter than in current seismic-hazard models.GNSEQC Biennial ProjectNew Zealand Natural Hazards Research Platform and Foundation for Research Science and TechnologyInstitute for Geophysic
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