Explaining the decline in the auction rate securities market

Auction rate securities are an example of a relatively obscure financial market instrument that has been caught up in the recent negative sentiment affecting the financial markets. This article examines these securities and sheds some light on recent events.Auctions ; Securities ; Financial markets

Plumes in stellar convection zones

All numerical simulations of compressible convection reveal the presence of strong downwards directed flows. Thanks to helioseismology, such plumes have now been detected also at the top of the solar convection zone, on super- granular scales. Their properties may be crudely described by adopting Taylor's turbulent entrainment hypothesis, whose validity is well established under various conditions. Using this model, one finds that the strong density stratification does not prevent the plumes from traversing the whole convection zone, and that they carry upwards a net energy flux (Rieutord & Zahn 1995). They penetrate to some extent in the adjacent stable region, where they establish a nearly adiabatic stratification. These plumes have a strong impact on the dynamics of stellar convection zones, and they play probably a key role in the dynamo mechanism.Comment: Proceedings of the 14th Florida Workshop in Nonlinear Astronomy and Physics, "Astrophysical Turbulence and Convection", Eds. J.R. Buchler and H. Kandrup, to appear in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (15 pages, 3 figures

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Like a nightmare coining true Over the horizon I see beautiful blue banknotes Stretching through my mind in A nightmarish line pleading for A buttery transfusion from a mystical bank with a stiff-necked teller...</p

Poem

Frustration born in blood stained sheets drip drip drip and then again like Burke as we look for garbage cans...</p

Brominated Flame Retardants as Food Contaminants

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are currently the largest market group of flame retardants. The five major BFRs are tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBP-A), hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs), and three commercial mixtures of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which are known as decabromodiphenyl ether (Deca-BDE), octabromodiphenyl ether (Octa-BDE), and pentabromodiphenyl ether (Penta-BDE). PBDEs, HBCDs, HBCDs and TBBP-A are used in a variety of consumer products, including computers, electronics and electrical equipment, televisions, textiles, foam-padded furniture, insulating foams, and other building materials. Since their introduction about 20 years ago, BFRs are found everywhere in the environment, including in our food. Since the concentrations in food are very low, the chemical analysis of these chemicals is a challenging task with numerous pitfalls.JRC.D.2-Reference material