German Banks in the Global Economy: Global Pressures and Public Sector Banking

German banking is distinguished from neighboring European banking systems by the influence of its public sector banks. Nearly 50 percent of German banking is carried out by government owned state banks (ländesbanken) and regional savings banks (sparkassen) whose roots date from the 18 th century. German banks play a particularly important role in the economy and exert more control over firms and corporations than do their American counterparts. German banks tend to be less profitable than foreign counterparts. German public banks were originally founded to foster local and regional business. However, the operations of German public sector banks now extend into all forms of international investment. German public banks are currently seeking new business models to increase profits as they are being forced to compete in the global financial market under liberal market practices dictated by the European Union. Turbulence in the global financial market precipitated by the U.S. sub‐prime mortgage meltdown has severely impacted German public sector banks, precipitating a banking crisis that leaves German taxpayers exposed to staggering losses. These global financial pressures dictate the restructuring of the German financial system. This restructuring has forced a breaking point in the traditional German corporatist banking model and is associated with significant risks to the stability of the German banking system

The Role of Headhunters in Wage Inequality: It's All about Matching

This study relates the increase in the U.S. top wages to the increasing prominence of headhunters. Headhunters improve the matching between firms and employees via two channels: screening of candidates and passive on-the-job search. I incorporate headhunters in the labor market framework of random search with two-sided heterogeneity. The calibrated model shows that headhunters can account for 35% of the increase in the top 1% wage share and 69% of the increase in the top 10% wage share in the U.S. from 1970 to 2010. I provide supporting cross-country evidence on headhunter hires/fees and top income growth, as well as micro evidence for CEO compensation

Novel DNA probes with low background and high hybridization-triggered fluorescence

Novel fluorogenic DNA probes are described. The probes (called Pleiades) have a minor groove binder (MGB) and a fluorophore at the 5′-end and a non-fluorescent quencher at the 3′-end of the DNA sequence. This configuration provides surprisingly low background and high hybridization-triggered fluorescence. Here, we comparatively study the performance of such probes, MGB-Eclipse probes, and molecular beacons. Unlike the other two probe formats, the Pleiades probes have low, temperature-independent background fluorescence and excellent signal-to-background ratios. The probes possess good mismatch discrimination ability and high rates of hybridization. Based on the analysis of fluorescence and absorption spectra we propose a mechanism of action for the Pleiades probes. First, hydrophobic interactions between the quencher and the MGB bring the ends of the probe and, therefore, the fluorophore and the quencher in close proximity. Second, the MGB interacts with the fluorophore and independent of the quencher is able to provide a modest (2–4-fold) quenching effect. Joint action of the MGB and the quencher is the basis for the unique quenching mechanism. The fluorescence is efficiently restored upon binding of the probe to target sequence due to a disruption in the MGB–quencher interaction and concealment of the MGB moiety inside the minor groove

Why are losses from trade unlikely?

© 2015. Examining a standard monopolistic competition model with unspecified utility/cost functions, we find necessary and sufficient conditions on their elasticities for welfare losses to arise from trade or market expansion. Two numerical examples explain the losses (under unrealistic elasticities)

Admittance investigation of MIS structures with GgTe-based single quantum wells

This work presents results of the investigation of admittance of metal-insulator-semiconductor structure based on Hg1 − xCdxTe grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The structure contains a single quantum well Hg0.35Cd0.65Te/HgTe/Hg0.35Cd0.65Te with thickness of 5.6 nm in the sub-surface layer of the semiconductor. Both the conductance-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics show strong oscillations when the metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure with a single quantum well based on HgTe is biased into the strong inversion mode. Also, oscillations on the voltage dependencies of differential resistance of the space charge region were observed. These oscillations were related to the recharging of quantum levels in HgTe

Unipolar barrier structures based on HgCdTe for infrared detection

One of the topical areas of solid state photoelectronics is the creation of infrared detectors based on unipolar barrier systems (for example, with an nBn architecture). The greatest progress has been achieved in the development of barrier detectors based on semiconductors of the AIIIBV group, which is associated with the possibility of realizing systems with a zero barrier in the valence band. Unipolar barrier detectors based on mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are of interest due to significant technological advantages, since the creation of such devices can abandon the defect forming procedure of ion implantation. Despite a significant number of theoretical works, only a few attempts are known to practically implement nBn detectors based on MBE HgCdTe

Spatial Resolution Attainable with Cathode Strip Chambers at the Trigger Level

A simple network of comparators applied to the strip signals of a cathode strip chamber allows quick hit localization to within a halfstrip width, or +/- a quarter-strip. A six-plane chamber with 6.4 mm wide strips was tested in a high-energy muon beam. The chamber was placed behind a 30 cm thick iron block. We show that patterns of hits localized to within a halfstrip allowed us to identify 300 GeV/c muon tracks with 99% probability and 0.7 mm spatial resolution in the presence of muon bremsstrahlung radiation. This technique of finding muon tracks will be used in the cathode strip chambers of the CMS Endcap Muon System