Thrift involvement in commercial and industrial lending

How important a role do thrift institutions play in local banking market competition? This article looks at a key aspect of that issue by examining the commercial and industrial lending of commercial banks and thrifts during the 1990s. Generally, thrifts were far less involved in C&I lending than banks during the period, but their involvement varied considerably with such factors as local deposit market concentration and institution size, charter type, and ownership status.Savings and loan associations ; Bank loans

What can the Midwest learn from California about emissions trading?

Clean Air Act of 1990 ; Environmental protection

Disseminating information or advocating peace? Journalists’ role perceptions in the face of conflict

Journalists play an important role in the formation of public opinion and can therefore be regarded as influential actors in conflict resolution. In Colombia, where the peace process remains a highly debated issue, the media are assumed to fuel polarization instead of dialogue. Indeed, deep societal divisions have been unveiled during last year’s plebiscite. In this environment, the concept of Peace Journalism has gained popularity among journalists, as it may promote a more nuanced debate. Against this backdrop, this study explores the role perceptions of Colombian journalists and their compatibility with the premises of Peace Journalism. To provide in-depth insights into journalists’ role conceptions, 16 semi-structured interviews with Colombian journalists were conducted. The results indicate that journalists hold a very active stance and want to influence and engage the public with their work, closely identifying with the role of the public mobilizer

The asymmetric sandwich theorem

We discuss the asymmetric sandwich theorem, a generalization of the Hahn-Banach theorem. As applications, we derive various results on the existence of linear functionals that include bivariate, trivariate and quadrivariate generalizations of the Fenchel duality theorem. Most of the results are about affine functions defined on convex subsets of vector spaces, rather than linear functions defined on vector spaces. We consider both results that use a simple boundedness hypothesis (as in Rockafellar's version of the Fenchel duality theorem) and also results that use Baire's theorem (as in the Robinson-Attouch-Brezis version of the Fenchel duality theorem). This paper also contains some new results about metrizable topological vector spaces that are not necessarily locally convex.Comment: 17 page

Gravitational wave recoil in Robinson-Trautman spacetimes

We consider the gravitational recoil due to non-reflection-symmetric gravitational wave emission in the context of axisymmetric Robinson-Trautman spacetimes. We show that regular initial data evolve generically into a final configuration corresponding to a Schwarzschild black-hole moving with constant speed. For the case of (reflection-)symmetric initial configurations, the mass of the remnant black-hole and the total energy radiated away are completely determined by the initial data, allowing us to obtain analytical expressions for some recent numerical results that have been appeared in the literature. Moreover, by using the Galerkin spectral method to analyze the non-linear regime of the Robinson-Trautman equations, we show that the recoil velocity can be estimated with good accuracy from some asymmetry measures (namely the first odd moments) of the initial data. The extension for the non-axisymmetric case and the implications of our results for realistic situations involving head-on collision of two black holes are also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, final version to appear in PR

A Grounded Theory Study of How Parents Made the Decision about Residential Group Home Placement for Their Adult Child with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities

Abstract Background: The parent caregivers of a child with an Intellectual Disability/Developmental Disability (ID/DD) face lifelong challenges that may at some point involve the decision about residential group home placement of the adult child. In the course of the child’s lifetime, the parents who have provided care may need to consider a safe alternative. The decision about residential group home placement of the adult child can be the result of numerous factors. Objective: The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to investigate the phenomenon of how the parent caregivers made the decision for residential group home placement for their adult child with ID/DD. Another purpose was to generate a substantive theory that describes and explains how the parent caregivers of the adult child with ID/DD made the decision for residential group home placement. This phenomenon represents a unique gap in nursing literature and nursing knowledge. Lastly, investigation of the phenomenon attempted to identify the presence of shared decision making among clinicians, nurses, the interdisciplinary healthcare team, and parent caregivers in this vulnerable population during the decision-making process. Method: Using Grounded Theory methodology, the researcher investigated the phenomenon of how parent caregivers made the decision about residential group home placement for their adult child with ID/DD. Sampling was purposive, theoretical maximum variation. Using Grounded Theory, a substantive theory was constructed based on accounts of 15 community-dwelling parent caregivers as participants. Sample size was determined when saturation of the data had been reached and no additional themes emerged. The group of participants included parent caregivers who had already placed their adult child with ID/DD in a residential group home (n = 14). In addition, so the researcher could more fully understand the phenomenon, the experience of a parent who decided against residential group home placement was explored through interview (n = 1). Mean age of the parent caregivers was 62.1, mean duration of caregiving across the group was 25.1 years, mean duration of years since placement across the group was 3.8 years. Results: The basic social problem was identified as parent caregiver readiness to make a decision. Parents Cannot be Caregivers Forever was identified as the core concept/central problem of caregiver readiness. When parent caregivers identified the reality that they could not be caregivers forever based on the caregiving demands of the adult child with ID/DD, they were ready to make residential group home placement decisions for their adult child with ID/DD. Four parent caregivers’ theoretical constructs were associated with the identified reality that Parents Cannot be Caregivers Forever: normalcy, burden, mortality, and support system. Parents go through many stages and adjustments during their lives when caring for a child with ID/DD. It is imperative that placement information be presented to parents by the interdisciplinary team at a point in time when they are receptive to accept. This research also identified that it is important for parents to communicate with other families and have interaction with supports that offer a sense of what the future may look like. By including the healthcare team and particularly nurses, parents will be able to adapt the information and participate in a shared decision-making process. Conclusion: Nurses are often part of the decision-making process when the parent caregivers of a person with ID/DD are making the decision for possible placement for their adult child who is moving from the family home into a residential group home setting. Residential group home placement decisions for the adult child with ID/DD is based on the parent caregivers’ readiness to identify that parents cannot be caregivers forever presented by the ID/DD diagnosis as the child ages. Greater understanding and clarity of this phenomenon will inform clinicians, nurses, and members of the interdisciplinary healthcare team on the future creation of targeted interventions or strategies to assist with shared decision making for this unique vulnerable ID/DD population. These targeted interventions and strategies can potentially influence parent decision-making experiences positively, improve their decision-making abilities, and offer professionals direction for further research

SiGe quantum dots for fast hole spin Rabi oscillations

We report on hole g-factor measurements in three terminal SiGe self-assembled quantum dot devices with a top gate electrode positioned very close to the nanostructure. Measurements of both the perpendicular as well as the parallel g-factor reveal significant changes for a small modulation of the top gate voltage. From the observed modulations we estimate that, for realistic experimental conditions, hole spins can be electrically manipulated with Rabi frequencies in the order of 100MHz. This work emphasises the potential of hole-based nano-devices for efficient spin manipulation by means of the g-tensor modulation technique