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

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

Single cell mechanics: stress stiffening and kinematic hardening

Cell mechanical properties are fundamental to the organism but remain poorly understood. We report a comprehensive phenomenological framework for the nonlinear rheology of single fibroblast cells: a superposition of elastic stiffening and viscoplastic kinematic hardening. Our results show, that in spite of cell complexity its mechanical properties can be cast into simple, well-defined rules, which provide mechanical cell strength and robustness via control of crosslink slippage.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Glutamate-mediated blood-brain barrier opening. implications for neuroprotection and drug delivery

The blood-brain barrier is a highly selective anatomical and functional interface allowing a unique environment for neuro-glia networks. Blood-brain barrier dysfunction is common in most brain disorders and is associated with disease course and delayed complications. However, the mechanisms underlying blood-brain barrier opening are poorly understood. Here we demonstrate the role of the neurotransmitter glutamate in modulating early barrier permeability in vivo Using intravital microscopy, we show that recurrent seizures and the associated excessive glutamate release lead to increased vascular permeability in the rat cerebral cortex, through activation of NMDA receptors. NMDA receptor antagonists reduce barrier permeability in the peri-ischemic brain, whereas neuronal activation using high-intensity magnetic stimulation increases barrier permeability and facilitates drug delivery. Finally, we conducted a double-blind clinical trial in patients with malignant glial tumors, using contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging to quantitatively assess blood-brain barrier permeability. We demonstrate the safety of stimulation that efficiently increased blood-brain barrier permeability in 10 of 15 patients with malignant glial tumors. We suggest a novel mechanism for the bidirectional modulation of brain vascular permeability toward increased drug delivery and prevention of delayed complications in brain disorders. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: In this study, we reveal a new mechanism that governs blood-brain barrier (BBB) function in the rat cerebral cortex, and, by using the discovered mechanism, we demonstrate bidirectional control over brain endothelial permeability. Obviously, the clinical potential of manipulating BBB permeability for neuroprotection and drug delivery is immense, as we show in preclinical and proof-of-concept clinical studies. This study addresses an unmet need to induce transient BBB opening for drug delivery in patients with malignant brain tumors and effectively facilitate BBB closure in neurological disorders

Prevalence of qacA/B genes and mupirocin resistance among methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates in the setting of chlorhexidine bathing without mupirocin

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine the frequency of qacA/B chlorhexidine tolerance genes and high-level mupirocin resistance among MRSA isolates before and after the introduction of a chlorhexidine (CHG) daily bathing intervention in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study (2005–2012) SETTING: A large tertiary-care center PATIENTS: Patients admitted to SICU who had MRSA surveillance cultures of the anterior nares METHODS: A random sample of banked MRSA anterior nares isolates recovered during (2005) and after (2006–2012) implementation of a daily CHG bathing protocol was examined for qacA/B genes and high-level mupirocin resistance. Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing was also performed. RESULTS: Of the 504 randomly selected isolates (63 per year), 36 (7.1%) were qacA/B positive ( + ) and 35 (6.9%) were mupirocin resistant. Of these, 184 (36.5%) isolates were SCCmec type IV. There was a significant trend for increasing qacA/B (P= .02; highest prevalence, 16.9% in 2009 and 2010) and SCCmec type IV (P< .001; highest prevalence, 52.4% in 2012) during the study period. qacA/B( + ) MRSA isolates were more likely to be mupirocin resistant (9 of 36 [25%] qacA/B( + ) vs 26 of 468 [5.6%] qacA/B(−); P= .003). CONCLUSIONS: A long-term, daily CHG bathing protocol was associated with a change in the frequency of qacA/B genes in MRSA isolates recovered from the anterior nares over an 8-year period. This change in the frequency of qacA/B genes is most likely due to patients in those years being exposed in prior admissions. Future studies need to further evaluate the implications of universal CHG daily bathing on MRSA qacA/B genes among hospitalized patients

Methyl group dynamics in a confined glass

We present a neutron scattering investigation on methyl group dynamics in glassy toluene confined in mesoporous silicates of different pore sizes. The experimental results have been analysed in terms of a barrier distribution model, such a distribution following from the structural disorder in the glassy state. Confinement results in a strong decreasing of the average rotational barrier in comparison to the bulk state. We have roughly separated the distribution for the confined state in a bulk-like and a surface-like contribution, corresponding to rotors at a distance from the pore wall respectively larger and smaller than the spatial range of the interactions which contribute to the rotational potential for the methyl groups. We have estimated a distance of 7 Amstrong as a lower limit of the interaction range, beyond the typical nearest-neighbour distance between centers-of-mass (4.7 Amstrong).Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. To be published in European Physical Journal E Direct. Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Dynamics in Confinemen

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