'Trust is good, control is better': the 1974 Herstatt-Bank crisis and its implications for international regulatory reform

With its international supervisory and regulatory implications, the failure of Bankhaus Herstatt is one of the landmarks of post-war financial history. This article offers the first comprehensive historical account of the Herstatt crisis, and contributes to the wider discussions on international supervisory and regulatory reform since the mid-1970s, including regulatory capture, markets' self-regulation and resolution of failed banks. In doing so, it first argues that contrary to a widely held view, the German authorities received early and repeated warnings about Herstatt's dealings but this involved only limited and ineffective regulatory/supervisory responses, then it turns to the actual collapse of the bank in June 1974, and finally explores the wider regulatory issues raised by the Herstatt case

Young carers in England: findings from the 2018 BBC survey on the prevalence and nature of caring among young people

Background Many young people are involved in caring for parents, siblings, or other relatives who have an illness or disability. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of caring by young people in England. Method A national survey of 925 English young people was conducted using the 18‐item survey version of the Multidimensional Assessment of Caring Activities Checklist for Young Carers. Results Around 7% of young people were identified as doing at least a high amount of caring activity and 3% a very high amount. Most frequently, caring by a young person is for a mother or a sibling, with a physical disability. Caring activity consisted mostly of domestic activities, household management, and emotional care. Conclusion This study provides the most up to date and methodologically sophisticated survey data on the prevalence of young caring in England, with implications for policy and practice

Corrugated Silicon Platelet Feed Horn Array for CMB Polarimetry at 150 GHz

Next generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropy measurements will feature focal plane arrays with more than 600 millimeter-wave detectors. We make use of high-resolution photolithography and wafer-scale etch tools to build planar arrays of corrugated platelet feeds in silicon with highly symmetric beams, low cross-polarization and low side lobes. A compact Au-plated corrugated Si feed designed for 150 GHz operation exhibited performance equivalent to that of electroformed feeds: ~-0.2 dB insertion loss, <-20 dB return loss from 120 GHz to 170 GHz, <-25 dB side lobes and <-23 dB cross-polarization. We are currently fabricating a 50 mm diameter array with 84 horns consisting of 33 Si platelets as a prototype for the SPTpol and ACTpol telescopes. Our fabrication facilities permit arrays up to 150 mm in diameter.Comment: 12 pages; SPIE proceedings for Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V (Conference 7741, June 2010, San Diego, CA, USA

Kahler Potentials of Chiral Matter Fields for Calabi-Yau String Compactifications

The Kahler potential is the least understood part of effective N=1 supersymmetric theories derived from string compactifications. Even at tree-level, the Kahler potential for the physical matter fields, as a function of the moduli fields, is unknown for generic Calabi-Yau compactifications and has only been computed for simple toroidal orientifolds. In this paper we describe how the modular dependence of matter metrics may be extracted in a perturbative expansion in the Kahler moduli. Scaling arguments, locality and knowledge of the structure of the physical Yukawa couplings are sufficient to find the relevant Kahler potential. Using these techniques we compute the `modular weights' for bifundamental matter on wrapped D7 branes for large-volume IIB Calabi-Yau flux compactifications. We also apply our techniques to the case of toroidal compactifications, obtaining results consistent with those present in the literature. Our techniques do not provide the complex structure moduli dependence of the Kahler potential, but are sufficient to extract relevant information about the canonically normalised matter fields and the soft supersymmetry breaking terms in gravity mediated scenarios.Comment: JHEP style, 24 pages, 4 figures. v2: New section and reference adde

FACS-based purification of Arabidopsis microspores, sperm cells and vegetative nuclei

Background: The male germline in flowering plants differentiates by asymmetric division of haploid uninucleated microspores, giving rise to a vegetative cell enclosing a smaller generative cell, which eventually undergoes a second mitosis to originate two sperm cells. The vegetative cell and the sperm cells activate distinct genetic and epigenetic mechanisms to control pollen tube growth and germ cell specification, respectively. Therefore, a comprehensive characterization of these processes relies on efficient methods to isolate each of the different cell types throughout male gametogenesis. Results: We developed stable transgenic Arabidopsis lines and reliable purification tools based on Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) in order to isolate highly pure and viable fractions of each cell/nuclei type before and after pollen mitosis. In the case of mature pollen, this was accomplished by expressing GFP and RFP in the sperm and vegetative nuclei, respectively, resulting in 99% pure sorted populations. Microspores were also purified by FACS taking advantage of their characteristic small size and autofluorescent properties, and were confirmed to be 98% pure. Conclusions: We provide simple and efficient FACS-based purification protocols for Arabidopsis microspores, vegetative nuclei and sperm cells. This paves the way for subsequent molecular analysis such as transcriptomics, DNA methylation analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation, in the developmental context of microgametogenesis in Arabidopsis.NSERC graduate student fellowship; Fred C. Gloeckner Foundation grant

Femoral head decentration on hip MRI: comparison between imaging planes, methods of contrast administration, and hip deformities.

OBJECTIVES To compare the prevalence of femoral head decentration (FHD) on different MR imaging planes in patients undergoing direct/indirect hip MR arthrography (MRA) with asymptomatic controls and to evaluate its association with osseous deformities. METHODS IRB-approved retrospective single-center study of symptomatic hips undergoing direct or indirect hip MRA at 3 T. Asymptomatic participants underwent non-contrast hip MRI at 3 T. FHD was defined as a continuous fluid layer between the acetabulum and femoral head and assessed on axial, sagittal and radial images. The association of intra-articular/intra-venous contrast agents and the prevalence of FHD was evaluated. The association of FHD with osseous deformities and joint damage was assessed using multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS Three-hundred ninety-four patients (447 hips, mean age 31 ± 9 years, 247 females) were included and compared to 43 asymptomatic controls (43 hips, mean age 31 ± 6 years, 26 females). FHD was most prevalent on radial images and more frequent in symptomatic hips (30% versus 2%, p < 0.001). FHD prevalence was not associated with the presence/absence of intra-articular contrast agents (30% versus 22%, OR = 1.5 (95% CI 0.9-2.5), p = 0.125). FHD was associated with hip dysplasia (OR = 6.1 (3.3-11.1), p < 0.001), excessive femoral torsion (OR = 3.0 (1.3-6.8), p = 0.010), and severe cartilage damage (OR = 3.6 (2.0-6.7), p < 0.001). CONCLUSION While rare in asymptomatic patients, femoral head decentration in symptomatic patients is associated with osseous deformities predisposing to hip instability, as well as with extensive cartilage damage. CRITICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT Decentration of the femoral head on radial MRA may be interpreted as a sign of hip instability in symptomatic hips without extensive cartilage defects. Its presence could unmask hip instability and yield promise in surgical decision-making. KEY POINTS The best method of identifying femoral head decentration is radial MRI. The presence/absence of intra-articular contrast is not associated with femoral head decentration. Femoral head decentration is associated with hip deformities predisposing to hip instability

Evaluating visible derivative spectroscopy by varimax-rotated, principal component analysis of aerial hyperspectral images from the western basin of Lake Erie

The Kent State University (KSU) spectral decomposition method provides information about the spectral signals present in multispectral and hyperspectral images. Pre-processing steps that enhance signal to noise ratio (SNR) by 7.37–19.04 times, enables extraction of the environmental signals captured by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center\u27s, second generation, Hyperspectral imager (HSI2) into multiple, independent components. We have accomplished this by pre-processing of Level 1 HSI2 data to remove stripes from the scene, followed by a combination of spectral and spatial smoothing to further increase the SNR and remove non-Lambertian features, such as waves. On average, the residual stochastic noise removed from the HSI2 images by this method is 5.43 ± 1.42%. The method also enables removal of a spectrally coherent residual atmospheric bias of 4.28 ± 0.48%, ascribed to incomplete atmospheric correction. The total noise isolated from signal by the method is thu

Scanning the Landscape of Flux Compactifications: Vacuum Structure and Soft Supersymmetry Breaking

We scan the landscape of flux compactifications for the Calabi-Yau manifold $\mathbb{P}^4_{[1,1,1,6,9]}$ with two K\" ahler moduli by varying the value of the flux superpotential $W_0$ over a large range of values. We do not include uplift terms. We find a rich phase structure of AdS and dS vacua. Starting with $W_0\sim 1$ we reproduce the exponentially large volume scenario, but as $W_0$ is reduced new classes of minima appear. One of them corresponds to the supersymmetric KKLT vacuum while the other is a new, deeper non-supersymmetric minimum. We study how the bare cosmological constant and the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters for matter on D7 branes depend on $W_0$, for these classes of minima. We discuss potential applications of our results.Comment: draft format remove