Can the supply of small business loans be increased?

Small and new businesses, widely credited as engines for job growth, have struggled during the recovery. One reason, say some analysts, is that bank lending to small businesses has declined steadily since the start of the recession. If, as many small businesses claim, the supply of credit from banks has contracted, then increasing the supply of small business loans may allow these businesses to grow and create new jobs. Understanding the factors that affect loan supply may help policymakers design policies to increase the supply of small business loans and, therefore, support further job growth. ; Wilkinson and Christensson analyze the potential effectiveness of two strategies that policymakers can use to expand the supply of small business loans: increasing bank capital and reducing problem assets. A review of recent policy initiatives suggests that influencing bank capital may be easier than addressing problem assets. However, reducing problem assets may lead to a larger and more persistent increase in the supply of loans.

Decay of Magnetic Fields in the Early Universe

We study the evolution of a stochastic helical magnetic field generated in the early Universe after the electroweak phase transition, using standard magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). We find how the coherence length xi, magnetic energy E_M and magnetic helicity H evolve with time. We show that the self-similarity of the magnetic power spectrum alone implies that xi ~ t^{1/2}. This in turn implies that magnetic helicity decays as H ~ t^{-2s}, and that the magnetic energy decays as E_M ~ t^{-0.5-2s}, where s is inversely proportional to the magnetic Reynolds number Re_M. These laws improve on several previous estimates.Comment: 5pp LaTeX + World Sci procs class, 3 eps figs. Talk given at Strong and Electroweak Matter, Oct 2-5 2002, Heidelber

Financial stability reports: how useful during a financial crisis?

Many of the origins of the recent financial crisis were in the United States, beginning with subprime mortgages and mortgage securities. As the crisis spread globally, few market participants or regulatory authorities saw it coming and all underestimated its severity. ; In the United States, the crisis has sparked many proposals to address its perceived causes and prevent a recurrence. One approach already used in many other countries is publishing financial stability reports. These reports review the condition of the financial system, identify and assess risks to the system, and suggest market or policy changes to address significant risk concerns. They are usually prepared by the country’s central bank and appear on a regular basis. ; Wilkinson, Spong, and Christensson analyze the financial stability reports prepared by four European countries that were affected by the financial crisis the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Spain. They find that these four reports were generally successful in identifying the risks that played important roles in the crisis although they underestimated the severity of this crisis. While it is not clear that the reports helped to reduce the damages, it would be a mistake to dismiss them as a useful tool. Overall, publishing financial stability reports appears to be a worthwhile exercise that encourages central banks and international authorities to identify and monitor important financial trends and emerging risks and to develop a better understanding of the underlying structure of domestic and global financial markets.

What can financial stability reports tell us about macroprudential supervision?

Many countries have suggested macroprudential supervision as a means for earlier identification and better control of the risks that might lead to a financial crisis. Since macroprudential supervision would focus on the financial system in its entirety and on major risks that could threaten financial stability, it shares many of the same goals as the financial stability reports written by most central banks. This article examines the financial stability reports of five central banks to assess how effective they were in identifying the problems that led to the recent financial crisis and what implications they might have for macroprudential supervision. ; The financial stability reports in these five countries were generally successful in foreseeing the risks that contributed to the crisis, but the reports underestimated the severity of the crisis and did not fully anticipate the timing and pattern of important events. While the stress tests in these reports provided insights into the resiliency and capital needs of the banks in these countries, the stresses and scenarios tested often differed from what actually occurred and some of the reports did not consider them to be likely events. One other major challenge for the central banks was in taking the concerns expressed in financial stability reports and linking them to effective and timely supervisory policy. Overall, the reports were a worthwhile exercise in identifying and monitoring key financial trends and emerging risks, but they also indicate the significant challenges macroprudential supervision will have in anticipating and addressing financial market disruptions.

Enhancement of Vibronic and Ground-State Vibrational Coherences in 2D Spectra of Photosynthetic Complexes

A vibronic-exciton model is applied to investigate the mechanism of enhancement of coherent oscillations due to mixing of electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom recently proposed as the origin of the long-lived oscillations in 2D spectra of the FMO complex [Christensson et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 116 (2012) 7449]. We reduce the problem to a model BChl dimer to elucidate the role of resonance coupling, site energies, nuclear mode and energy disorder in the enhancement of vibronic-exciton and ground-state vibrational coherences, and to identify regimes where this enhancement is significant. For a heterodimer representing the two coupled BChls 3 and 4 of the FMO complex, the initial amplitude of the vibronic-exciton and vibrational coherences are enhanced by up to 15 and 5 times, respectively, compared to the vibrational coherences in the isolated monomer. This maximum initial amplitude enhancement occurs when there is a resonance between the electronic energy gap and the frequency of the vibrational mode. The bandwidth of this enhancement is about 100 cm-1 for both mechanisms. The excitonic mixing of electronic and vibrational DOF leads to additional dephasing relative to the vibrational coherences. We evaluate the dephasing dynamics by solving the quantum master equation in Markovian approximation and observe a strong dependence of the life-time enhancement on the mode frequency. Long-lived vibronic-exciton coherences are found to be generated only when the frequency of the mode is in the vicinity of the electronic resonance. Although the vibronic-exciton coherences exhibit a larger initial amplitude compared to the ground-state vibrational coherences, we conclude that both type have a similar magnitude at long time for the present model. The ability to distinguish between vibronic-exciton and ground-state vibrational coherences in the general case of molecular aggregate is discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Lawns and biodiversity : a study on how mowing frequency and todays maintenance practice affects biodiversity

Att bevara och öka den biologiska mångfalden är ett hett ämne i dagens diskurs. Det finns många vetenskapliga studier som visar att kortklippta gräsytor inte gynnar den biologiska mångfalden, samtidigt som de i Sveriges urbana gröna miljöer utgör ca 50%. Syftet med den här studien är att studera hur klippfrekvens och rådande riktlinjer inom skötsel påverkar den biologiska mångfalden i gräsytor. Uppsatsen är upplagd som en litteraturstudie där vetenskapliga artiklar, böcker och riktlinjer för skötsel av utemiljöer studerats. Uppsatsen tar upp klipptekniker som används mer eller mindre i Sverige idag, hur de fungerar och deras påverkan på biologisk mångfald. Resultatet visar att en hög klippfrekvens sänker den biologiska mångfalden, samt att rådande praktik som beror på de riktlinjer för skötsel av offentliga utemiljöer som finns idag, inte heller gynnar biologisk mångfald. Människor uppfattar mer sällan ytor med hög biologisk mångfald som attraktiva om de inte innehar någon form av skötselmarkör som får ytan att se omskött ut. Allmänhetens uppfattning om begreppet biologisk mångfald är viktigt att förstå för att kommunicera skötselåtgärder som främjar biologisk mångfald och som är accepterade av allmänheten. Diskussionen tar upp förslag på hur gräsytor kan skötas för att främja biologisk mångfald. Förslagen innebär att först kritiskt granska det upplevda behovet av kortklippta gräsytor för att efteråt inkorporera fler höggräsytor i de urbana utemiljöerna. Att inkorporera skötselmarkörer för att visa att en yta är omskött kan hjälpa med att öka acceptansen hos allmänheten för ytor med hög biologisk mångfald. Om ytor behöver vara låga kan örtgräsmattor vara ett alternativ.To preserve and enhance biodiversity is a contemporary subject. There are multiple scientific studies showing that shortly cut grass areas are not favorable for biodiversity, at the same covering ca 50% of Sweden´s green urban areas. The objective with this study has been to show how biodiversity is affected by mowing frequency and current guidelines regarding management of the outdoor environment. This essay is a literature study where research articles, books on the subject and guidelines for lawn management has been studied. The essay also regards mowing techniques used more or less in today’s society, how they work and their effect on biodiversity. The result shows that a high mowing frequency lowers the biodiversity, and that today’s practical management of the environment that depends on current guidelines does not favor biodiversity either. The public will less often perceive areas with high biodiversity as attractive if the area does not contain any cues of care, making it look managed. The public’s perception of the term biodiversity is important to understand to communicate and implement new guidelines that are accepted by the general public, as well as favoring biodiversity. Proposals of how to manage grass areas to enhance biodiversity is presented and then discussed. The proposal implies the need of being critical against the perceived need of shortly mowed grass, to then incorporating more areas of tall grass. To implement design cues of care could help to show that an area is managed and cared for could affect biodiversity in a positive way. If tall grass is not possible to implement in an area, the area could be made a tapestry lawn

Perioperative management and molecular patterns in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder, both in the general and surgical population. While there is a steadily increased awareness of the disorder both in the society as a whole and within health care, unfortunately, most individuals with OSA still go undiagnosed. The repeated upper airway obstructions causing hypoxias, microarousals and increased sympathetic activation do not only contribute to the classical symptoms of excessive daytime tiredness and nightly snoring but also to increased cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidity. Patients with OSA are found to have an increased risk for perioperative pulmonary and cardiovascular complications, but also increased risk for intensive unit care and prolonged hospital stay after surgery. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effect of partial neuromuscular blockade on the hypoxic ventilatory regulation in patients with OSA, to evaluate the STOP-Bang questionnaire in a sleep clinic population and to explore whole blood transcriptome and circulating inflammatory biomarkers in patients with OSA compared to matched controls and after three and twelve months of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment. It has previously been shown that the hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) is reduced by a third during partial neuromuscular blockade in healthy volunteers and that sleep apnea patients have an increased HVR compared to healthy controls. We found that the HVR is reduced by 36% in untreated sleep apnea patients at a train-of-four ratio of 0.7, whilst the hypercapnic ventilatory response was unaffected. The STOP-Bang questionnaire is designed as a simple screening tool to identify OSA in the surgical population. It consists of eight dichotomous (yes/no) questions, each yes giving one score. In the sleep clinic population, we found that the optimal cut-off for identifying OSA is a score of 5 and to identify at least moderate OSA is a score of 6. In addition, we also showed that a score of ³6 has a sensitivity of 91% to detect moderate-to-severe OSA and that a score <2 can exclude moderate-to-severe OSA by 95%. There was a good correlation between the apnea-hypopnea index and the oxygen desaturation index. Obstructive sleep apnea is considered a chronic low-grade inflammatory disease and together with increased sympathetic activation and oxidative stress may cause many of the associated comorbidities. To better understand the pathophysiology of the disease, there has been an intense search for biomarkers. We showed that untreated patients with OSA have a downregulation of immune-related genes, including light and heavy chain immunoglobulins and interferon-inducible genes compared to matched controls. However, after three months of CPAP treatment, the gene expression resembled that of the matched controls and finally, after twelve months of treatment, the gene expression returned to the initial untreated state. When exploring circulating inflammatory biomarkers we found that capase 8 and glia cell-line derived neurotrophic factor were downregulated and that monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, fibroblast growth factor 21, neutrophils and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio was upregulated by 3 and/or 12 months CPAP treatment. No inflammatory biomarker was changed in untreated patients with OSA compared to matched controls. However, interleukin 1 alpha, c-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were increased in untreated sleep apnea patients compared to normal body mass index controls. In conclusion, untreated patients with OSA are as vulnerable to acute hypoxia during partial neuromuscular block as healthy volunteers with a reduced HVR by one-third. They are not protected by their typically increased HVR. The STOP-Bang questionnaire can be an effective screening tool in the sleep population, where nearly all patients with a score of ³6 have at least moderate OSA and a score <2 almost excludes at least moderate OSA. For intermediate scoring (2-5) nightly pulse oximetry can add extra information. There is a difference in the genetic and protein molecular pattern in patients with OSA before and after CPAP treatment in the sense that changes in the transcriptome were found in the untreated state compared to matched controls but not in circulating inflammatory biomarkers. Howevere there was a normalisation of the genetic expression after three months of treatment and a return to the untreated state after twelve months whereas the changes of inflammatory biomarkers mainly appeared after 12 months of CPAP treatment

Some aspects on the impact of parasitic infections in animals used as laboratory animals and their impact on the parasites

No abstract availabl

Ontogenetic and comparative aspects of cerebellar and motor development

During the course of development the motor repertoire of animals and humans alike go through dramatic changes. New motor patterns arise; movements become coordinated, improve in precision and are at the same time continuously calibrated to the changing body dimensions. The cerebellum is critical for movement coordination and adaptation in adults. Also, interfering with cerebellar development during early life causes behavioural deficits suggesting an important role of the cerebellum in the formation of motor synergies. Hence, to understand the dramatic change in motor competence that characterizes postnatal development it may be of particular interest to study processes underlying the formation and shaping of the cerebellar neuronal networks. Unfortunately, little is known about how the cerebellum actually contributes to motor development. In order to elucidate the relationships between cerebellar ontogenetic changes and postnatal motor development a suitable animal model for multiple levels of analysis is a prerequisite. In this thesis, we therefore sought to develop and evaluate an experimental model that is suitable for combined behavioural, structural and systems level electrophysiological investigations of cerebellar development. For a number of reasons, the postnatal ferret seemed to be a suitable candidate. Although the ferret is commonly used as an experimental model in developmental studies on sensory systems, the development of its motor systems and motor behaviour had not been previously investigated. As a first step, we characterized the postnatal motor development in ferret kits in daily sessions from postnatal day (P)2 to P63. A battery of motor tests spanning the entire developmental period was used to assess locomotor activity and ability and the maturation of postural dynamic reflexes. Secondly, we characterized the morphological development of the ferret cerebellum. Overall cerebellar size, foliation and thickness of cortical layers were quantified and Purkinje cell morphology was characterized from P1 to P63. Thirdly, we investigated the zonal organization of climbing fibre input to the cerebella of ferret kits; a fundamental and general physiological feature of cerebellar function in the adult animal. These studies provide the first investigations of motor behavioural and cerebellar morphological development in the ferret. The electrophysiological data obtained represent a first important step towards the understanding of cerebellar physiological processes in the course of motor development. We conclude that the ferret in many aspects is a particularly suitable animal model for the study of cerebellar mechanisms underlying motor development. In a parallel approach, we assessed how timescales of motor and cerebellar morphological development can be translated between species with differently long developmental time periods, such as the ferret and rat. Linear regression analyses were performed on time points defining the corresponding levels of motor development and cerebellar maturation in ferrets and rats (rat data from Altman and Bayer, 1997). The derived time-conversion equations describing cerebellar morphological development and motor development in ferret and rat were highly congruent. To extend the comparative analysis to also include humans a model was formulated that takes into consideration comparative time courses of neurogenesis and cerebellar morphogenesis and relative timing of birth. Using behavioural data from rats and ferrets as input, the model predicts corresponding motor developmental dates that fall within 10% of actual mean values for the human population. Such astonishing predictive accuracy indicates that motor development in animals and man is governed by very similar principles and that these principles are successfully captured by our model