How to regulate bank dividends? Is capital regulation an answer?

This paper is a contribution to the debate on “how to regulate banks' dividend payout behaviour”, a question that has attracted special attention of academicians as well as policy makers since the onset of 2007–08 financial crisis. In this paper, we examine whether common equity based capital regulation and more stringent risk based capital requirements force banks to restrict dividend payments. Common equity based capital regulation is likely to restrict bank dividends by limiting the sources of new capital for banks. Similarly more stringent risk based capital requirements are likely to force banks to retain profits to meet regulatory capital requirements. We use an international sample of 8689 banks from 58 countries over the pre-crisis period 1998–2007 for empirical analysis. Results show that banks paid lower dividends, were less likely to pay dividends and were less likely to pay excessive dividends in countries where regulators imposed common equity based capital regulation and more stringent risk based capital requirements for the banking industry during the pre-crisis period. We also extend our sample period from 1998 to 2012 and observe that regulatory capital requirements are less effective in restricting bank dividend payments during crisis period. From a policy perspective, we suggest that regulators can limit banks' options to raise new capital from non-common equity based sources and can impose more stringent risk based capital requirements to restrict banks from dividend over-payments in good times. While regulators can use blanket restrictions on sector wise dividend payments in bad times

Separating snow, clean and debris covered ice in the Upper Indus Basin, Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalayas, using Landsat images between 1998 and 2002

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in the Journal of Hydrology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in the Journal of Hydrology Volume 521, February 2015, Pages 46–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.11.048The full text of this version of the article is embargoed for 24 months from the date of publication to meet the publisher's requirementsThe Hindukush Karakoram Himalayan mountains contain some of the largest glaciers of the world, and supply melt water from perennial snow and glaciers to the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) upstream of Tarbela dam, which constitutes greater than 80% of the annual flows, and caters to the needs of millions of people in the Indus Basin. It is therefore important to study the response of perennial snow and glaciers in the UIB under changing climatic conditions, using improved hydrological modeling, glacier mass balance, and observations of glacier responses. However, the available glacier inventories and datasets only provide total perennial-snow and glacier cover areas, despite the fact that snow, clean ice and debris covered ice have different melt rates and densities. This distinction is vital for improved hydrological modeling and mass balance studies. This study, therefore, presents a separated perennial snow and glacier inventory (perennial snow-cover on steep slopes, perennial snow-covered ice, clean and debris covered ice) based on a semi-automated method that combines Landsat images and surface slope information in a supervised maximum likelihood classification to map distinct glacier zones, followed by manual post processing. The accuracy of the presented inventory falls well within the accuracy limits of available snow and glacier inventory products. For the entire UIB, estimates of perennial and/or seasonal snow on steep slopes, snow-covered ice, clean and debris covered ice zones are 7238 ± 724, 5226 ± 522, 4695 ± 469 and 2126 ± 212 km^2 respectively. Thus total snow and glacier cover is 19,285 ± 1928 km^2, out of which 12,075 ± 1207 km^2 is glacier cover (excluding steep slope snow-cover). Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) estimates based on the Snow Line Elevation (SLE) in various watersheds range between 4800 and 5500 m, while the Accumulation Area Ratio (AAR) ranges between 7% and 80%. 0 °C isotherms during peak ablation months (July and August) range between ~ 5500 and 6200 m in various watersheds. These outputs can be used as input to hydrological models, to estimate spatially-variable degree day factors for hydrological modeling, to separate glacier and snow-melt contributions in river flows, and to study glacier mass balance, and glacier responses to changing climate

Solving delay differential equations by using implicit 2-point block backward differentiation formula

In this paper, an implicit 2-point Block Backward Differentiation formula (BBDF) method was considered for solving Delay Differential Equations (DDEs). The method was implemented by using a constant stepsize via Newton Iteration. This implicit block method was expected to produce two points simultaneously. The efficiency of the method was compared with the existing classical 1-point Backward Differentiation Formula (BDF) in terms of execution time and accurac

Effect of carbon and nitrogen sources and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio on production of Exserohilum longirostratum.

The effects of carbon and nitrogen sources and the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio on the growth and sporulation of Exserohilum longirostratum were evaluated. Rice flour and malt extracts as the carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively, produced the greatest amount of mycelium. Sources that produced the most biomass were chosen as carbon and nitrogen sources in a C:N ratio test. However, in further experiments, glucose was chosen as the carbon source for the C:N ratio test because rice flour was found to be easily contaminated. Under the C:N ratio test (fixed carbon test), the highest spore production was obtained with a 5:1 ratio (4.78 × 106 spores/mL) and the highest biomass production was obtained with a 7.5:1 ratio (4.66 g/100 mL). In the fixed nitrogen test, 7.5:1 ratio provided the greatest output (4.08 × 106 spores/mL) whereas a 5:1 ratio produced the most biomass (4.33 g/100 mL). Meanwhile, the control which consisted of V8 agar without additional carbon and nitrogen source produced 1.07 × 106 spores/mL. These results provide information on the influence of carbon and nitrogen source and the C:N ratio that can be used in media for optimum growth and spore yield

Can large language model agents simulate human trust behaviors?

Large Language Model (LLM) agents have been increasingly adopted as simulation tools to model humans in applications such as social science. However, one fundamental question remains: can LLM agents really simulate human behaviors? In this paper, we focus on one of the most critical behaviors in human interactions, trust, and aim to investigate whether or not LLM agents can simulate human trust behaviors. We first find that LLM agents generally exhibit trust behaviors, referred to as agent trust, under the framework of Trust Games, which are widely recognized in behavioral economics. Then, we discover that LLM agents can have high behavioral alignment with humans regarding trust behaviors, particularly for GPT-4, indicating the feasibility to simulate human trust behaviors with LLM agents. In addition, we probe into the biases in agent trust and the differences in agent trust towards agents and humans. We also explore the intrinsic properties of agent trust under conditions including advanced reasoning strategies and external manipulations. We further offer important implications of our discoveries for various scenarios where trust is paramount. Our study provides new insights into the behaviors of LLM agents and the fundamental analogy between LLMs and humans

A Search Strategy for Detecting Duodenoscope-Associated Infections:A Retrospective Observational Study

Background: Duodenoscope-associated infections (DAIs) are exogenous infections resulting from the use of contaminated duodenoscopes. Though numerous outbreaks of DAI have involved multidrug-resistant micro-organisms (MDROs), outbreaks involving non-MDROs are also likely to occur. Detection challenges arise as these infections often resolve before culture or because causative strains are not retained for comparison with duodenoscope strains. Aim: To identify and analyse DAIs spanning a seven-year period in a tertiary care medical centre. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study. Duodenoscope cultures positive for gastrointestinal flora between March 2015 and September 2022 were paired with duodenoscope usage data to identify patients exposed to contaminated duodenoscopes. Analysis encompassed patients treated after a positive duodenoscope culture and those treated within the interval from a negative to a positive culture. Patient identification numbers were cross-referenced with a clinical culture database to identify patients developing infections with matching micro-organisms within one year of their procedure. A ‘pair’ was established upon a species-level match between duodenoscope and patient cultures. Pairs were further analysed via antibiogram comparison, and by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to determine genetic relatedness. Findings: Sixty-eight pairs were identified; of these, 21 exhibited matching antibiograms which underwent WGS, uncovering two genetically closely related pairs categorized as DAIs. Infection onset occurred up to two months post procedure. Both causative agents were non-MDROs. Conclusion: This study provides crucial insights into DAIs caused by non-MDROs and it highlights the challenge of DAI recognition in daily practice. Importantly, the delayed manifestation of the described DAIs suggests a current underestimation of DAI risk.</p

Dengue Virus Serotype 2 from a Sylvatic Lineage Isolated from a Patient with Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever

Dengue viruses circulate in both human and sylvatic cycles. Although dengue viruses (DENV) infecting humans can cause major epidemics and severe disease, relatively little is known about the epidemiology and etiology of sylvatic dengue viruses. A 20-year-old male developed dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) with thrombocytopenia (12,000/ul) and a raised hematocrit (29.5% above baseline) in January 2008 in Malaysia. Dengue virus serotype 2 was isolated from his blood on day 4 of fever. A phylogenetic analysis of the complete genome sequence revealed that this virus was a member of a sylvatic lineage of DENV-2 and most closely related to a virus isolated from a sentinel monkey in Malaysia in 1970. This is the first identification of a sylvatic DENV circulating in Asia since 1975