Monte Carlo Renormalization of 2d Simplicial Quantum Gravity Coupled to Gaussian Matter

We extend a recently proposed real-space renormalization group scheme for dynamical triangulations to situations where the lattice is coupled to continuous scalar fields. Using Monte Carlo simulations in combination with a linear, stochastic blocking scheme for the scalar fields we are able to determine the leading eigenvalues of the stability matrix with good accuracy both for c = 1 and c = 10 theories.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Creditor Protection and Banking System Development in India

We use a new legal dataset tracking changes in creditor protection law over several decades to study the impact of legal reforms on banking system development in India. Cointegration analysis is used to show that the strengthening of creditor rights in relation to the enforcement of security interests in the 1990s and 2000s led to an increase in bank credit. We show that the change in the law was not endogenous to trends in stock market development and GDP per capita, and that the direction of causation ran from legal reform to banking development, rather than the reverse.creditor rights; legal origin; banking development; India

Creditor Protection and Banking System Development in India

We use a new legal dataset tracking changes in creditor protection law over several decades to study the impact of legal reforms on banking system development in India. Cointegration analysis is used to show that the strengthening of creditor rights in relation to the enforcement of security interests in the 1990s and 2000s led to an increase in bank credit. We show that the change in the law was not endogenous to trends in stock market development and GDP per capita, and that the direction of causation ran from legal reform to banking development, rather than the reverse.creditor rights; legal origin; banking development; India.

Creditor Protection and Banking System Development in India

We use a new legal dataset tracking changes in creditor protection law over several decades to study the impact of legal reform on banking system development in India.  Cointegration analysis is used to show that the strengthening of creditor rights in relation to the enforcement of security iterests in the 1990s and 2000s led to an increase in bank credit.  We show that the change in the law was not endogenous to trends in stock market development and GDP per capita, and that the direction of causation ran from legal reform to banking development, rather than the reverse.creditor rights, legal origin, banking development, India

MUCP 183-983: Applied Music Composition--A Course Benchmark Portfolio

MUCP 183-983, Applied Music Composition, is the core of the music composition course curriculum for students at all levels, from freshman to doctoral candidate. Like all applied lesson environments, it is a one-on-one, individualized study that principally involves the instructor giving students feedback on their musical works-in-progress. This time-honored paradigm for teaching composition has produced brilliant artists, but is rife with pitfalls and traps that can tarnish a student’s growth: composition pedagogues can coerce students into writing music like their teachers, or can prescribe a curriculum that makes composition accessible only to students who have already played classical music for years. As the school of music diversifies, and students enroll whose musical experiences may be more varied than ever, how can composition lessons best serve them? How do we encourage student growth no matter what their musical aspirations, and how do we assess growth without letting our personal preferences color our judgments? Is there a way to “universalize” a composition curriculum so all students—from the doctoral student with an emerging compositional career to the brand new freshman whose only musical experiences have been making beats on their laptop—can grow within it? This portfolio sets out to answer these questions through examination of the Applied Composition curriculum. It introduces the structure and rationale for the course design, alongside current issues within the field of composition pedagogy. It examines strategies for maximizing and assessing student growth, and then applies those strategies to student work to demonstrate how they might be useful to both composition teachers and students

Planar cell polarity genes Frizzled3a, Vangl2, and Scribble are required for spinal commissural axon guidance

Background A fundamental feature of early nervous system development is the guidance of axonal projections to their targets in order to assemble neural circuits that control behavior. Spinal commissural neurons are an attractive model to investigate the multiple guidance cues that control growth cone navigation both pre- and post-midline crossing, as well as along both the dorsal–ventral (D–V) and anterior–posterior (A–P) axes. Accumulating evidence suggests that guidance of spinal commissural axons along the A–P axis is dependent on components of the planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling pathway. In the zebrafish, the earliest born spinal commissural neuron to navigate the midline and turn rostrally is termed commissural primary ascending (CoPA). Unlike mammalian systems, CoPA axons cross the midline as a single axon and allow an analysis of the role of PCP components in anterior pathfinding in single pioneering axons. Results Here, we establish CoPA cells in the zebrafish spinal cord as a model system for investigating the molecular function of planar cell polarity signaling in axon guidance. Using mutant analysis, we show that the functions of Fzd3a and Vangl2 in the anterior turning of commissural axons are evolutionarily conserved in teleosts. We extend our findings to reveal a role for the PCP gene scribble in the anterior guidance of CoPA axons. Analysis of single CoPA axons reveals that these commissural axons become responsive to PCP-dependent anterior guidance cues even prior to midline crossing. When midline crossing is prevented by dcc gene knockdown, ipsilateral CoPA axons still extend axons anteriorly in response to A–P guidance cues. We show that this ipsilateral anterior pathfinding that occurs in the absence of midline crossing is dependent on PCP signaling. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that anterior guidance decisions by CoPA axons are dependent on the function of planar cell polarity genes both prior to and after midline crossing