Accounting for the financialized UK and US national business model

The term ‘business model’ (BM) is generally used to describe the possibilities of transforming corporate activities and business functions (Osterwalder et al,2005 and Magretta,2002) In this paper we argue that our understanding of what constitutes a BM can be reworked to generate a useful organizing framework to investigate the nature of national economic development and transformation. Our argument is that national business models are subtended within a broad econo‐sphere where they evolve and adapt to information arising out of stakeholder interactions. These interactions congeal into reported financial numbers that are represented as GDP flow (income and surplus) and Balance Sheet accumulations (assets and liabilities outstanding). In this paper we employ financial data from national accounts to specifically describe how the US and UK national business models have financialized. We observe that balance sheet capitalization has inflated ahead of earnings and surplus. Our argument is that the capitalization of a national business model is not simply the mathematical product of discounting corporate cash earnings. The process of on‐going capitalization is also conditioned by variable institutional sector characteristics where financial innovation is possible and, within credit based economies, goodwill and holding gains arising out of asset inflation also provide collateral for further ongoing recapitalizations. In financialized national business models the system of accounting takes on added analytical significance because it ‘transmits rather than contains’ and ‘amplifies rather than dampens’ adverse financial disturbance as capitalizations are recalibrated up or down.Peer reviewe

Point-free program transformation

Functional programs are particularly well suited to formal manipulation by equational reasoning. In particular, it is straightforward to use calculational methods for program transformation. Well-known transformation techniques, like tupling or the introduction of accumulating parameters, can be implemented using calculation through the use of the fusion (or promotion) strategy. In this paper we revisit this transformation method, but, unlike most of the previous work on this subject, we adhere to a pure point-free calculus that emphasizes the advantages of equational reasoning. We focus on the accumulation strategy initially proposed by Bird, where the transformed programs are seen as higher-order folds calculated systematically from a specification. The machinery of the calculus is expanded with higher-order point-free operators that simplify the calculations. A substantial number of examples (both classic and new) are fully developed, and we introduce several shortcut optimization rules that capture typical transformation patterns.Presidência do Conselho de Ministros - POSI/ICHS/44304/2002

Maximum Segment Sum, Monadically (distilled tutorial, with solutions)

The maximum segment sum problem is to compute, given a list of integers, the largest of the sums of the contiguous segments of that list. This problem specification maps directly onto a cubic-time algorithm; however, there is a very elegant linear-time solution too. The problem is a classic exercise in the mathematics of program construction, illustrating important principles such as calculational development, pointfree reasoning, algebraic structure, and datatype-genericity. Here, we take a sideways look at the datatype-generic version of the problem in terms of monadic functional programming, instead of the traditional relational approach; the presentation is tutorial in style, and leavened with exercises for the reader.Comment: Revision of the article in Proceedings DSL 2011, EPTCS 66, arXiv:1109.0323, to provide solutions to the exercise

Sensitivity analysis of marine Controlled-Source Electromagnetic data

Electromagnetic sounding methods represent one of the few geophysical techniques that can provide information about the state and the properties of deep continental crust and upper mantle. In particular, marine Controlled-Source Electromagnetic (mCSEM) method is being applied to offshore hydrocarbon exploration and providing encouraging results, as it can complement the information obtained from seismic elaborations, mainly the position of the elastic discontinuities, with a map of electrical conductivity, the principal "discriminator" between conductive water-bearing rocks and non-conductive hydrocarbon accumulations. The processing of mCSEM data can be problematic due to the non-uniqueness of the solution, the environmental and equipment noise, and the high computational power required when dealing with 3D inversion. This paper proposes a simplified procedure to study and rank the sensitivity of mCSEM in a canonical 1D scenario, with a single resistive anomaly embedded in a homogeneous background. We analyze the sensitivity of the data with respect to the most important test parameters, namely the frequency, target depth, thickness, and resistivity. In addition, this procedure is also utilized to validate the so-called T-equivalence theorem. The results of this study could assist the interpreter to highlight the reliability of the inverted parameters in a complex inversion environment

Taylor dispersion of gyrotactic swimming micro-organisms in a linear flow

The theory of generalized Taylor dispersion for suspensions of Brownian particles is developed to study the dispersion of gyrotactic swimming micro-organisms in a linear shear flow. Such creatures are bottom-heavy and experience a gravitational torque which acts to right them when they are tipped away from the vertical. They also suffer a net viscous torque in the presence of a local vorticity field. The orientation of the cells is intrinsically random but the balance of the two torques results in a bias toward a preferred swimming direction. The micro-organisms are sufficiently large that Brownian motion is negligible but their random swimming across streamlines results in a mean velocity together with diffusion. As an example, we consider the case of vertical shear flow and calculate the diffusion coefficients for a suspension of the alga <i>Chlamydomonas nivalis</i>. This rational derivation is compared with earlier approximations for the diffusivity

An exceptionally rich Soricidae (Mammalia) fauna from the upper Miocene localities of Polgárdi (Hungary)

More than 7000 shrew specimens were found in the Upper Miocene localities of Polgárdi, Hungary. The wel! preserved bones and teeth were deposited mainly by pit-fall accumulations. Crusafontina kormosi (BACHMAYER& WILSON), Amblycoptus oligodon KORMOS, Kordosia topali (JANossY), Blarinella dubia (BACHMAYER& WILSON),Asoriculus gibberodon (PETÉNYl), Zelceina soriculoides (SULIMSKl) and Paenelimnoecus repenningi (BACHMAYER& WILSON) were identified from the samples. on the basis of these occurrences, all sites belong to the Late Turolian MN 13 Zone, but locality 4 is somewhat older, and locality 2 is earlier than locality 5. The soricids suggest that Polgárdi 2 and 4 were wel! watered, forested areas in semiarid climate, while Polgárdi 5 might have been an open enviromnent in akarstic grassland area

Observations of marine life in the Indian Ocean by hydroacoustic water column imaging

Present day multibeam echo sounder systems have the capability to record, display, and log backscattered signals from the water column (WCI = water column imaging) in addition to the echoes from the seafloor. This extra information can deliver interest-ing insights into marine life in the upper water layers but it produces a huge amount of data which requires tremendous time and effort for processing and interpretation. To tackle this, a semi-automated approach has been developed which is based on the conversion of the data into images and applying available image processing tech-niques. That way the WCI data acquired during eight expeditions in the Indian Ocean had been processed and the relative biomass abundance along an extended North-South profile had been determined. In addition, the WCI data displayed interesting observations of the diurnal migration of zooplankton and revealed an amazing cor-relation to nocturnal illumination