Macroeconomic Impact of Bank Regulation and Supervision: A cross-country investigation

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Bank regulation and supervision (RS) is a formal institutional mechanism that aims to reduce the adverse selection and moral hazard risks in the banking sector. This paper offers an empirical exploration of the relationship between banking-sector performance and RS using data on the legal quality of bank regulation and supervision. The main channels via which RS affects bank performance are considered to be depositor trust, investment mobilization, and borrower discipline. An event study of up to fifty-three countries provides robust evidence that RS has significant positive effects on bank deposits and investment rate and significant negative effects on nonperforming loans

Sonocrystallisation of Lactose in an Aqueous System

Although research on sonocrystallisation of lactose has been reported in the literature (yield and crystal size), the effect of ultrasound variables on nucleation and growth rate of lactose have not been studied. In this study, lactose crystallisation with ultrasound was compared with mechanical agitation using the induction time method at 22 °C. Ultrasound had a significant effect in reducing induction times and narrowing the metastable zone width but had no effect on individual crystal growth rate or morphology. A rapid decrease in induction time was observed up to 0.46 Wg-1 power density. Sonication up to 3 min decreased the induction time, but no further reduction was observed beyond 3 min. It was not possible to generate the nucleation rates achieved by sonication using agitation alone. 1 min sonication at 0.46 Wg1 power density followed by continuous stirring was found to be the optimum under the experimental conditions tested

A novel form of recessive limb girdle muscular dystrophy with mental retardation and abnormal expression of alpha-dystroglycan

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The limb girdle muscular dystrophies are a heterogeneous group of conditions characterized by proximal muscle weakness and disease onset ranging from infancy to adulthood. We report here eight patients from seven unrelated families affected by a novel and relatively mild form of autosomal recessive limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD2) with onset in the first decade of life and characterized by severe mental retardation but normal brain imaging. Immunocytochemical studies revealed a significant selective reduction of α-dystroglycan expression in the muscle biopsies. Linkage analysis excluded known loci for both limb girdle muscular dystrophy and congenital muscular dystrophies in the consanguineous families. We consider that this represents a novel form of muscular dystrophy with associated brain involvement. The biochemical studies suggest that it may belong to the growing number of muscular dystrophies with abnormal expression of α-dystroglycan. © 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V

Analysis of Various Polarization Asymmetries In The Inclusive b→sℓ+ℓ−b\to s \ell^+ \ell^- Decay In The Fourth-Generation Standard Model

In this study a systematical analysis of various polarization asymmetries in inclusive b \rar s \ell^+ \ell^- decay in the standard model (SM) with four generation of quarks is carried out. We found that the various asymmetries are sensitive to the new mixing and quark masses for both of the $\mu$ and $\tau$ channels. Sizeable deviations from the SM values are obtained. Hence, b \rar s \ell^+ \ell^- decay is a valuable tool for searching physics beyond the SM, especially in the indirect searches for the fourth-generation of quarks ($t', b')$.Comment: 19 Pages, 10 Figures, 3 Table

Structure-based design and synthesis of antiparasitic pyrrolopyrimidines targeting pteridine reductase 1

The treatment of Human African Trypanosomiasis remains a major unmet health need in sub-Saharan Africa. Approaches involving new molecular targets are important and pteridine reductase 1 (PTR1), an enzyme that reduces dihydrobiopterin in Trypanosoma spp. has been identified as a candidate target and it has been shown previously that substituted pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines are inhibitors of PTR1 from T. brucei (J. Med. Chem. 2010, 53, 221-229). In this study, 61 new pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines have been prepared, designed with input from new crystal structures of 23 of these compounds complexed with PTR1, and evaluated in screens for enzyme inhibitory activity against PTR1 and in vitro antitrypanosomal activity. 8 compounds were sufficiently active in both screens to take forward to in vivo evaluation. Thus although evidence for trypanocidal activity in a stage I disease model in mice was obtained, the compounds were too toxic to mice for further development

New Physics in b -> s mu+ mu-: CP-Conserving Observables

We perform a comprehensive study of the impact of new-physics operators with different Lorentz structures on decays involving the b -> s mu+ mu- transition. We examine the effects of new vector-axial vector (VA), scalar-pseudoscalar (SP) and tensor (T) interactions on the differential branching ratios and forward-backward asymmetries (A_{FB}'s) of Bsbar -> mu+ mu-, Bdbar -> Xs mu+ mu-, Bsbar -> mu+ mu- gamma, Bdbar -> Kbar mu+ mu-, and Bdbar -> K* mu+ mu-, taking the new-physics couplings to be real. In Bdbar -> K* mu+ mu-, we further explore the polarization fraction f_L, the angular asymmetry A_T^{(2)}, and the longitudinal-transverse asymmetry A_{LT}. We identify the Lorentz structures that would significantly impact these observables, providing analytical arguments in terms of the contributions from the individual operators and their interference terms. In particular, we show that while the new VA operators can significantly enhance most of the asymmetries beyond the Standard Model predictions, the SP and T operators can do this only for A_{FB} in Bdbar -> Kbar mu+ mu-.Comment: 54 pages, JHEP format, 45 figures (included). 5/6/2013: typos in K* mu mu angular coefficients corrected, typos in Eq. (D.12) corrected, added a missing term in I3LT in Eq. (D.16). Numerical analysis unchange

Lepton polarization asymmetry in radiative dileptonic B-meson decays in MSSM

In this paper we study the polarization asymmetries of the final state lepton in the radiative dileptonic decay of B meson (\bsllg) in the framework of Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) and various other unified models within the framework of MSSM e.g. mSUGRA, SUGRA (where condition of universality of scalar masses is relaxed) etc. Lepton polarization, in addition of having a longitudinal component (\pl), can have two other components, \pt and \pn, lying in and perpendicular to the decay plane, which are proportional to \ml and hence are significant for final state being $\mu^+ ~ \mu^-$ or $\tau^+ \~\tau^-$. We analyse the dependence of these polarization asymmetries on the parameters of the various models.Comment: typos corrected to match with published versio

Experimental analysis of a paraffin-based cold storage tank

[EN] The aim of this study is to characterize a paraffin-based cold storage tank. Novel experimental results are presented for this system which combines a significant amount of paraffin (1450 kg) immersed around 18 spiral-shaped coils disposed in counter-current flow. The paraffin has a phase-change temperature in the range 4 8 °C as measured by a 3-layer calorimeter. Different tests have been carried out with a constant mass flow rate and supply temperature. Around 31% of the paraffin has hardly any contact with the coils and hereby acts as a dead mass. The results show the importance of natural convection within the phase-change-material, particularly during the melting process. The highest efficiency has been achieved for the lowest supply temperatures and mass flow rates of the heat transfer fluid.The authors gratefully acknowledge the fundings from ACCIONA Infraestructuras.Torregrosa-Jaime, B.; López-Navarro, A.; Corberán, JM.; Esteban-Matías, JC.; Klinkner, L.; Payá-Herrero, J. (2013). Experimental analysis of a paraffin-based cold storage tank. International Journal of Refrigeration. 36(6):1632-1640. doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2013.05.001S1632164036