The 2004 survey of community banks in the Tenth District

Periodically, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City surveys Tenth District bankers for their views on a variety of matters. In February 2004, we solicited banker opinion on a number of topics pertaining to governance and staffing practices, vendor management practices, competitive environment and future prospects, interest rate risk management practices, internet banking services, and payments system issues. This article briefly sets out the survey methodology and describes the applicability of survey results to the entire population of District banks. It also reviews what bankers told us about their environment, competition, and future challenges. Broadly speaking, survey results can be generalized for all Tenth District banks. The representative community bank in the District has assets less than $150 million, is family-owned and locally controlled, and is headquartered outside a metropolitan area. The economic and competitive environment these banks face depends, in part, on growth prospects and diversification opportunities within their communities. Their most intense loan and deposit competitors are other community banks. Their greatest challenges involve basic aspects of successfully managing a bank: funding, income sources, and meeting competition. Despite identifying many problems, all but a few bankers expect their banks will remain in business and succeed.Federal Reserve District, 10th ; Community banks

New measurement of charge asymmetry xF3x{F}_3 from HERA

After presenting the recent measurements of neutral current cross section in DIS at HERA, we explain the effect of the $\gamma-Z_0$ interference at the electro-weak scale, visible on these data. Then, the beam charge difference $x{F}_3$ is measured and the interference itself is extracted. Results are discussed in the context of perturbative QCD.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the International Workshop on Positrons at Jefferson Lab (March 25-27, 2009), Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, V

GPDs and DVCS with Positrons

The beam charge asymmetry helps to isolate the real part of the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) amplitude. It is discussed what information can be gained both from the real and imaginary part of the DVCS amplitude.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, invited talk at `Workshop on Positrons at Jefferson Lab

Two-photon exchange measurements with positrons and electrons

Two-photon exchange contributions have potentially broad ranging impact on several charged lepton scattering measurements. Previously believed to be extremely small, based in part on comparisons of positron scattering and electron scattering in the 1950s and 1960s, recent data suggest that the corrections may be larger than expected, in particular in kinematic regions that were inaccessible in these early positron scattering measurements. Additional measurements using positron beams at Jefferson Lab would allow for a detailed investigation of these contributions in a range of reactions and observables.Comment: 6 pages, proceedings from the International Workshop on Positrons at Jefferson Lab (JPOS09), Jefferson Lab, Newport News, VA, March 25-27, 200

CK, AN ENGINEERING DESIGN THEORY?: CONTRIBUTIONS, LIMITS AND PROPOSALS

International audienceThe CK theory developed by Hatchuel, Weil and Le Masson has raised interest and controversies in the academic and practitioners' communities. This paper is participating to this debate. After presenting the scope, focus, and the contributions claimed by its creators; the authors analyse the interest of considering also other concepts and models usually integrated in traditional design knowledge and practices. Indeed, it can be noticed that important concepts such as the concepts of function and structure for example seems to remain outside the perimeter of CK even if some of them are integrated in the research programs of the authors. This is not a central limitation if the real scope of the theory will be minimized, compared with the initial ambition of the CK's creators. It is nevertheless a fruitful contribution which explicitly creates a distinction between knowledge, concepts and notes the importance of expanding partition. The present contribution proposes to enrich the initial scope of CK by integrating theoretical contributions made by other authors and by considering concepts widely used and accepted in engineering design

The Engineering Design CK Theory: Contributions and Limits

http://asmedl.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=ASMECP002010044137000083000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes&ref=noInternational audienceThe CK theory of design created by Hatchuel and Weil has raised interest and controversies both in the academic community and among practitioners. After presenting the scope and focus of CK theory, and the contributions claimed for it by its creators, we compare it to concepts and models more commonly used in traditional design approaches. It can be noticed that important concepts are ignored by CK theory, even if some of them are integrated into the research programs of Hatchuel, Weil, and Le Masson. This initial analysis demonstrates that even in its scope, CK theory appears incomplete for engineering design and does not consider important dimensions of the validity of the research program as claimed. Then we analyze the foundations and hypotheses of CK theory from a critical viewpoint. Some suggestions for its improvement are made. Additionally, the ability of CK theory both to effectively assist and direct the creative process and, moreover, to organize the complete design and innovation processes is questioned. Finally, we draw conclusions about the ambitious program and results claimed by the creators of CK theory

A domain-specific analysis system for examining nuclear reactor simulation data for light-water and sodium-cooled fast reactors

Building a new generation of fission reactors in the United States presents many technical and regulatory challenges. One important challenge is the need to share and present results from new high-fidelity, high-performance simulations in an easily usable way. Since modern multiscale, multi-physics simulations can generate petabytes of data, they will require the development of new techniques and methods to reduce the data to familiar quantities of interest (e.g., pin powers, temperatures) with a more reasonable resolution and size. Furthermore, some of the results from these simulations may be new quantities for which visualization and analysis techniques are not immediately available in the community and need to be developed. This paper describes a new system for managing high-performance simulation results in a domain-specific way that naturally exposes quantities of interest for light water and sodium-cooled fast reactors. It describes requirements to build such a system and the technical challenges faced in its development at all levels (simulation, user interface, etc.). An example comparing results from two different simulation suites for a single assembly in a light-water reactor is presented, along with a detailed discussion of the system's requirements and design.Comment: Article on NiCE's Reactor Analyzer. 23 pages. Keywords: modeling, simulation, analysis, visualization, input-outpu

Leveraging Blind Woodworkers’ Practices to Develop Inclusive Instruction

The goal of this study is to identify teaching strategies that can help visually impaired students to participate in design and design related education, and by extension, professional practice. The motivation for developing inclusion in STEAM classrooms and design studios is based on past literature demonstrating that diverse and empathetic groups of problem solvers are highly effective, and that visually impaired students have had historically limited access to education and employment opportunities in general. This study suggest that, based on the for-us-by-us woodworking courses developed in blind communities, woodworking is a viable form of design and STEAM education for visually impaired students, and hence can serve as an example case study for understanding how we can implement more inclusive education. As findings we present 10 teaching principles which instructors can use to make their woodshops accessibly to blind woodworkin

Investigating Alternative Acidic Proteases for H/D Exchange Coupled to Mass Spectrometry: Plasmepsin 2 but not Plasmepsin 4 Is Active Under Quenching Conditions

Structural studies of proteins by hydrogen/deuterium exchange coupled to mass spectrometry (DXMS) require the use of proteases working at acidic pH and low temperatures. The spatial resolution of this technique can be improved by combining several acidic proteases, each generating a set of different peptides. Three commercial aspartic proteases are used, namely, pepsin, and proteases XIII and XVIII. However, given their low purity, high enzyme/protein ratios have to be used with proteases XIII and XVIII. In the present work, we investigate the activity of two alternative acidic proteases from Plasmodium falciparum under different pH and temperature conditions. Peptide mapping of four different proteins after digestion with pepsin, plasmepsin 2 (PSM2), and plasmepsin 4 (PSM4) were compared. PSM4 is inactive at pH 2.2 and 0°C, making it unusable for DXMS studies. However, PSM2 showed low but reproducible activity under DXMS conditions. It displayed no substrate specificity and, like pepsin, no strict sequence specificity. Altogether, these results show that PSM2 but not PSM4 is a potential new tool for DXMS studies

How to improve Kline and Rosenberg's chain-linked model of innovation: building blocks and diagram-based languages

article accessible aussi en ligne via le lien suivant : www.cairn.info/revue-journal-of-innovation-economics-2014-3-page-59.htm.International audienceThe "hierarchical and linear model of innovation" (HLMI) is often used to describe how innovations are produced. HLMI presents several shortcomings and one possible way of overcoming them is to consider innovations from a system perspective. In order to achieve this, this article uses Kline and Rosenberg's chain-linked model (CLM, 1985) as a starting point and builds up on it, proposing an improvement rendering CLM more coherent with its systemic bases. The proposed improvement suggests conceiving innovation systems as associations of building blocks and using contemporary engineering diagram-based languages to display them. Nevertheless, this improvement does not challenge the dynamic features of innovation system