Profiting from Protecting Small Business Borrowers: Take That to the Bank!

While small businesses represent a significant portion of the economy, there is mounting evidence that the playing field is not level for these firms in access to capital. Based on 10 years of matched-paired mystery shopping tests in banks to investigate bank lending practices and customer experience, the results demonstrate that in almost every instance, minorities were treated more poorly than their White counterparts. However, the authors acknowledge the controversy surrounding this issue, as some question the need for government action to push banks in this direction. Before offering evidence of the impact race can have on the treatment of small business owners who apply for loans, they present two frameworks which support the adoption of race-based criteria in evaluating bank performance, namely, Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Social Innovation. They then provide a summary of the results of mystery shopping studies they have conducted, concluding that banks are leaving profits on the table through their discriminatory practices

A risk analysis of adjusted gross revenue-lite on beef farms

This study evaluates the Adjusted Gross Revenue-Lite (AGR-Lite) whole-farm adjusted gross revenue insurance program on net farm income risk using panel data from 49 southeast Kansas beef farms. On average for the group, but not each individual farm, AGR-Lite reduces the mean and standard deviation of net farm income, raises the average minimum, and lowers the average maximum observations of the net income distribution. Thirty-four farms (69%) received at least one indemnity payment. Stochastic efficiency with respect to a function reveals that AGR-Lite is preferred by 18 of the farm managers (37%) when an upper bound on the risk-aversion coefficient is used

Detecting Discrimination in Small Business Lending

With limited financial sophistication, entrepreneurial consumers approach the financial marketplace more like retail financial consumers than business customers. However, the assumption of both legislators and regulators is that business-borrowers are more financially savvy than consumer-borrowers, and thus do not require as broad-reaching protections. This gap between marketplace policy protections and the lived reality of the vast majority of small business entrepreneurs sets the stage for entrepreneurial consumers to fall through the regulatory cracks and sets the stage for possible exploitation and abuse. This situation is potentially exacerbated for minority entrepreneurs who belong to protected classes that are generally more vulnerable to exploitation in the marketplace including the small business lending marketplace. In this paper, we highlight the current state of this policy gap in the marketplace relative to minority entrepreneurial consumers and present a matched-paired mystery shopping study that demonstrates the critical need for reliable, primary data to inform regulatory agencies as they work to implement available protections to ensure equal access to credit within the small business lending marketplace

Corticosterone predicts foraging behavior and parental care in Macaroni Penguins

Corticosterone has received considerable attention as the principal hormonal mediator of allostasis or physiological stress in wild animals. More recently, it has also been implicated in the regulation of parental care in breeding birds, particularly with respect to individual variation in foraging behaviour and provisioning effort. There is also evidence that prolactin can work either inversely or additively with corticosterone to achieve this. Here we test the hypothesis that endogenous corticosterone plays a key physiological role in the control of foraging behaviour and parental care using a combination of exogenous corticosterone treatment, time-depth telemetry, and physiological sampling of female macaroni penguins (Eudyptes chrysolophus) during the brood-guard period of chick rearing, while simultaneously monitoring patterns of prolactin secretion. Plasma corticosterone levels were significantly higher in females given exogenous implants relative to those receiving sham implants. Increased corticosterone levels were associated with significantly higher levels of foraging and diving activity, and greater mass gain in implanted females. Elevated plasma corticosterone was also associated with an apparent fitness benefit in the form of increased chick mass. Plasma prolactin levels did not correlate with corticosterone levels at any time, nor was prolactin correlated with any measure of foraging behaviour or parental care. Our results provide support for the corticosterone-adaptation hypothesis, which predicts that higher corticosterone levels support increased foraging activity and parental effort

Gravitational Leakage into Extra Dimensions: Probing Dark Energy Using Local Gravity

The braneworld model of Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) is a theory where gravity is modified at large distances by the arrested leakage of gravitons off our four-dimensional universe. Cosmology in this model has been shown to support both "conventional" and exotic explanations of the dark energy responsible for today's cosmic acceleration. We present new results for the gravitational field of a clustered matter source on the background of an accelerating universe in DGP braneworld gravity, and articulate how these results differ from those of general relativity. In particular, we show that orbits nearby a mass source suffer a universal anomalous precession as large as 5 microarcseconds/year, dependent only on the graviton's effective linewidth and the global geometry of the full, five-dimensional universe. Thus, this theory offers a local gravity correction sensitive to factors that dictate cosmological history.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, revtex. Reference updated. Footnote change

An oligofluorene truxene based distributed feedback laser for biosensing applications

The first example of an all-organic oligofluorene truxene based distributed feedback laser for the detection of a specific protein–small molecule interaction is reported. The protein avidin was detected down to View the MathML source1μgmL−1 using our biotin-labelled biosensor platform. This interaction was both selective and reversible when biotin was replaced with desthiobiotin. Avidin detection was not perturbed by Bovine Serum Albumin up to View the MathML source50,000μgmL−1. Our biosensor offers a new detection platform that is both highly sensitive, modular and potentially re-usable

Costs of reproduction and carry-over effects in breeding albatrosses

We investigated the physiology of two closely related albatross species relative to their breeding strategy: black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris) breed annually, while grey-headed albatrosses (T. chrysostoma) breed biennially. From observations of breeding fate and blood samples collected at the end of breeding in one season and feather corticosterone levels (fCort) sampled at the beginning of the next breeding season, we found that in both species some post-breeding physiological parameters differed according to breeding outcome (successful, failed, deferred). Correlations between post-breeding physiology and fCort, and links to future breeding decisions, were examined. In black-browed albatrosses, post-breeding physiology and fCort were not significantly correlated, but fCort independently predicted breeding decision the next year, which we interpret as a possible migratory carry-over effect. In grey-headed albatrosses, post-breeding triglyceride levels were negatively correlated with fCort, but only in females, which we interpret as a potential cost of reproduction. However, this potential cost did not carry-over to future breeding in the grey-headed albatrosses. None of the variables predicted future breeding decisions. We suggest that biennial breeding in the grey-headed albatrosses may have evolved as a strategy to buffer against the apparent susceptibility of females to negative physiological costs of reproduction. Future studies are needed to confirm this

Robust solution of Richards' equation for nonuniform porous media

Capillary pressure-saturation-relative permeability relations described using the van Genuchten [1980] and Mualem [1976] models for nonuniform porous media lead to numerical convergence difficulties when used with Richards' equation for certain auxiliary conditions. These difficulties arise because of discontinuities in the derivative of specific moisture capacity and relative permeability as a function of capillary pressure. Convergence difficulties are illustrated using standard numerical approaches to simulate such problems. Constitutive relations, interblock permeability, and nonlinear algebraic system approximation methods, and two time integration approaches are investigated. An integral permeability approach approximated by Hermite polynomials is recommended and shown to be robust and economical for a set of test problems, which correspond to a sand, a loam and a clay loam media

Building Cohesion in Distributed Telemedicine Teams Findings from the Department of Veterans Affairs National Telestroke Program

Background: As telemedicine adoption increases, so does the importance of building cohesion among physicians in telemedicine teams. For example, in acute telestroke services, stroke specialists provide rapid virtual stroke assessment and treatment to patients at hospitals without stroke specialty care. In the National Telestroke Program (NTSP) of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a virtual (distributed) hub of stroke specialists throughout the country provides 24/7 consultations nationwide. We examined how these specialists adapted to distributed teamwork, and we identied cohesion-related factors inprogram development and support. Methods: We conducted a case study of the stroke specialists employed by the NTSP. Semi-structured, condential interviews with stroke specialists in the virtual hub were recorded and transcribed. We explored the extent to which these specialists had developed a sense of shared identity and teamcohesion, and we identied factors in this development. Using a qualitative approach with constant comparison methods, two researchers coded each interview transcript independently using a shared codebook. We used matrix displays to identify themes, with special attention to team cohesion, communication, trust, and satisfaction. Results: Of 13 specialists with at least 8 months of NTSP practice, 12 completed interviews; 7 had previously practiced in telestroke programs in other healthcare systems. Interviewees reported high levels of trust and team cohesion, sometimes even more with their virtual colleagues than with local colleagues. Factors facilitating perceived team cohesion included a weekly case conference call, a sense of transparency in discussing challenges, engagement in NTSP development tasks, and support from the NTSP leadership. Although lack of in-person contact was associated with lower cohesion, annual in-person NTSP meetings helped mitigate this issue. Despite technical challenges in establishing a new telehealth system within existing national infrastructure, providers reported high levels of satisfaction with the NTSP.Conclusion: A virtual telestroke hub can provide a sense of team cohesion among stroke specialists at a level comparable with a standard co-located practice. Engaging in transparent discussion of challenging cases, reviewing new clinical evidence, and contributing to program improvements may promotecohesion in distributed telemedicine teamsThis work was funded by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Rural Health (016ORH), VHA Office of Specialty Care, VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Precision Monitoring Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUE 15-280). Funding sources had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or manuscript writing. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs