Top performing small banks: making money the old-fashioned way

Although the profitability of U.S. small banks shrank in the 1980s, two percent of these banks remained highly profitable by emphasizing basic banking, namely acquiring low-cost funds and making low-risk investments.Banks and banking ; Bank size

Determining the Effect of Cuff Deflation on Post-Exercise Arterial Occlusion Pressure

While it is recommended that blood flow restriction be applied relative to pre-exercise arterial occlusion pressure (AOP), no guidelines exist for an initial rest period prior to the measurement. Remeasuring AOP post-exercise can be used to estimate the cardiovascular response. When measuring post-exercise (pre-) AOP, different methods could be used. Some increase the cuff pressure from blood flow restriction exercise pressure (without deflation), or deflate the cuff prior to post-exercise (post-) AOP measurement. It is unknown if pre-AOP is affected by initial rest period, or if post- AOP is affected by cuff deflation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to: 1) compare pre- AOP across differing initial rest periods, and 2) compare post- changes in AOP measured either with or without cuff deflation following exercise. 20 participants completed three visits. Visit 1 consisted of paperwork, and measurements of height, weight, and 1 repetition maximum (1RM) bicep curl testing on the dominant arm, followed by familiarization. Upon entry into the lab on visits 2 and 3 (exercise testing days), AOP was measured immediately and 10min after initial measurement, with 10min serving as pre-AOP. Depending on condition, AOP was measured 5min after initial AOP on one of the two days. Three sets of elbow flexion exercise were performed at 30% 1RM to failure and 40% of pre- AOP with 30s rest between sets. 10s after the cessation of exercise, post-AOP was measured. Depending on condition, to assess post-exercise AOP, the pressure was increased from 40% AOP, or the cuff was deflated and reinflated. A Bayesian one-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare differences in AOP across rest periods and a Bayesian t-test was used to compare differences in inflated versus deflated pre- to post- AOP changes. Results presented as mean (SD). RESULTS: The immediate [158.8 (21.6)], 5min [159.3 (20.3)], and 10min [ 159.4 (23.5)] AOP measures were similar (BF10 = .141). Differences between immediate-10min measures on days with a 5-min measure [0.65 (8.1)] and days without [1.65 (9.0)] were also similar (BF10 = .244). There was anecdotal evidence of a difference (BF10 = .815) in pre- to post- changes in AOP with the cuff remaining inflated [32.8 (25.6)] and deflated [21.6 (12.8)] shows. The number of total exercise repetitions completed was similar across days, days of cuff deflation 52.8(18.9) and those without 54.5(17.4) BF10 = .293). CONCLUSION: Our data shows similarity in these three initial rest periods. It is unclear if cuff deflation affects changes in pre- to post-AOP, therefore continued research is required

Ninth-century Abbasid depictions of Jahiliyya Arabness

textAbstract: Abbasid scholars began compiling complete histories of the Arab peoples for the first time in the eighth and ninth century. Prior to this, all histories of the Arab peoples had been passed down orally, through poetry and spoken histories. In compiling and writing these grand histories, ninth-century Muslim scholars were afforded a unique opportunity to editorialize historical Arab exemplars, and by extension, editorialize Arabness. Armed with knowledge from the Qur'an, these Muslim scholars could imbue select famous historical Arab figures with Qur'an approved Jahiliyya Arab traits while excising or modulating forbidden traits in order to present an ideal Arabness to which all Arabs might aspire. The three authors selected for this thesis are Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Ibn Hisham, and Ibn Sa'd. These authors all either wrote or edited grand scale historical compendia on the Arab people. The exemplars utilized by these authors were all depicted to exhibit many ideal traits as per the Qur'an and Abbasid society in the ninth century, demonstrating retroactively that the Arabs were the perfect people to receive the final revelations of God. This thesis advances the theory that these ninth-century scholars' depictions of jahiliyya Arabness contributed to the ideal of Arabness today, and aid in our understanding of the relationship between Arabness and Islam.Middle Eastern Studie

Trotula, women's problems, and the professionalization of medicine in the Middle Ages

The professionalization of medicine in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries led to an exclusion of women practitioners from the best paid and most respected medical positions. Male doctors controlled the teaching and theory of women's medicine, and their gynecological literature incorporated male experience, understanding and learning. The treatises attributed to Trotula, which survive in nearly 100 manuscripts, were the most popular texts used by academic physicians in the later Middle Ages. Although Georg Kraut's Strassburg edition of 1544 treats the treatises of "Trotula" as a single, unified work, three separate texts circulated in the Middle Ages, and on stylistic and other grounds it is likely that each was written by a different author. Reasonably solid evidence demonstrates the existence of a woman physician at Salerno named Trota or Trotula, but she was not a magistra (as is often asserted), and it seems that she did not write even one of the three texts attributed to her. Instead, she produced a Practica from which extracts appear in a Practica secundum Trotam, which survives as a single mansucript in Madrid, and in De aegritudinum curatione in the Wrociaw (Breslau) Codex Salernitanus. This paper is to be published by the Bulletin of the History of Medicine in 1985

Balancing Dynamic Strength of Spur Gears Cut by Pinion Cutter Operated at Extended Center Distance

This thesis report presents a design problem on the study of dynamic properties in a spur gear system. The system consists of two in-line spur gears, defined as pinion and gear, both cut by a pinion cutter, operated at a center distance greater than standard. The design problem is based upon the published literature. In this study, the dynamic model is created in the computer program Dynamic Analysis of Spur Gear Transmissions (DANST). The program solution contains several outputs. The primary output of concern is the stress at the root of the tooth due to bending caused by the tangential component of the tooth load. The model is optimized by minimizing the difference in stress between the pinion and gear. This optimization occurs for a pinion offset less than the static optimization of the stress

Graphic design archive on videodisc marketing and communication programs

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Iffy Predictions and Proper Expectations

What individuates the speech act of prediction? The standard view is that prediction is individuated by the fact that it is the unique speech act that requires future-directed content. We argue against this view and two successor views. We then lay out several other potential strategies for individuating prediction, including the sort of view we favor. We suggest that prediction is individuated normatively and has a special connection to the epistemic standards of expectation. In the process, we advocate some constraints that we think a good theory of prediction should respect