Constituencies and Legislation: The Fight over the McFadden Act of 1927

The McFadden Act of 1927 was one of the most hotly contested pieces of legislation in U.S. banking history, and its influence was still felt over half a century later. The act was intended to force states to accord the same branching rights to national banks as they accorded to state banks. By uniting the interests of large state and national banks, it also had the potential to expand the number of states that allowed branching. Congressional votes for the act therefore could reflect the strength of various interests in the district for expanded banking competition. Unlike previous work, we find strong evidence of elite influence. We find congressmen in districts in which landholdings were concentrated (suggesting a landed elite), and where the cost of bank credit was high and its availability limited (suggesting limited banking competition and high potential rents), were significantly more likely to oppose the act. The evidence suggests that while the law and the overall regulatory structure can shape the financial system far into the future, they themselves are likely to be shaped by well organized elites, even in countries with benign political institutions.

Requirements and applications for robotic servicing of military space systems

The utility of on-orbit servicing of spacecraft has been demonstrated by NASA several times using shuttle-based astronaut EVA. There has been interest in utilizing on-orbit servicing for military space systems as well. This interest has been driven by the increasing reliance of all branches of the military upon space-based assets, the growing numbers, complexity, and cost of those assets, and a desire to normalize support policies for space-based operations. Many military satellites are placed in orbits which are unduly hostile for astronaut operations and/or cannot be reached by the shuttle. In addition, some of the projected tasks may involve hazardous operations. This has led to a focus on robotic systems, instead of astronauts, for the basis of projected servicing systems. This paper describes studies and activities which will hopefully lead to on-orbit servicing being one of the tools available to military space systems designers and operators. The utility of various forms of servicing has been evaluated for present and projected systems, critical technologies have been identified, and strategies for the development and insertion of this technology into operational systems have been developed. Many of the projected plans have been adversely affected by budgetary restrictions and evolving architectures, but the fundamental benefits and requirements are well understood. A method of introducing servicing capabilities in a manner which has a low impact on the system designer and does not require the prior development of an expensive infrastructure is discussed. This can potentially lead to an evolutionary implementation of the full technology

Emergence and Adult Biology of \u3ci\u3eAgrilus Difficilis\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), a Pest of Honeylocust, \u3ci\u3eGleditsia Triacanthos\u3c/i\u3e

Emergence and adult biology of Agrilus difficilis were examined in relation to its host Gleditsia triacanthos. began as early as 5 June in 1982 and completed as late as 22 July in 1983. Females lived significantly longer, 48 days, than males, 29 days. Average fecundity was one egg per day during a 36-day oviposition period

Random strings and tt-degrees of Turing complete C.E. sets

We investigate the truth-table degrees of (co-)c.e.\ sets, in particular, sets of random strings. It is known that the set of random strings with respect to any universal prefix-free machine is Turing complete, but that truth-table completeness depends on the choice of universal machine. We show that for such sets of random strings, any finite set of their truth-table degrees do not meet to the degree~0, even within the c.e. truth-table degrees, but when taking the meet over all such truth-table degrees, the infinite meet is indeed~0. The latter result proves a conjecture of Allender, Friedman and Gasarch. We also show that there are two Turing complete c.e. sets whose truth-table degrees form a minimal pair.Comment: 25 page

A Study Measuring the Effectiveness of Visual Recall Provided by a Videotape Recorder in Teaching Golf Performance Skills

This is a study to determine if beginning golf students who view a videotape replay of themselves practicing a full swinging golf shot with an instructor\u27s critique will improve their golf performance skills significantly more than students whose full swinging golf shot is videotaped but who are not exposed to a videotape replay of their performance; however, they were provided an instructor\u27s critique