Effects of credit limit on efficiency and welfare in a simple general equilibrium model

We consider a simple general equilibrium model with two agents under the presence of financial market imperfections: agents can borrow to realize their productive project up to the level of debt whose repayment reaches a fraction of the project's value (so-called credit limit). After characterizing the whole set of equilibria, we investigate the connection between credit limit, (individual and social) welfare, and efficiency. We also compute the optimal credit limit which maximizes the social welfare function

Effects of credit limit on efficiency and welfare in a simple general equilibrium model

We consider a simple general equilibrium model with two agents under the presence of financial market imperfections: agents can borrow to realize their productive project up to the level of debt whose repayment reaches a fraction of the project's value (so-called credit limit). After characterizing the whole set of equilibria, we investigate the connection between credit limit, (individual and social) welfare, and efficiency. We also compute the optimal credit limit which maximizes the social welfare function

Synthesis and characterization of lactose and lactulose derived oligosaccharides by glucansucrase and trans-sialidase enzymes

Human milk oligosaccharides (hMOS) have an essential role in infants’ health by stimulating growth of health-beneficial gut bacteria for the human host. These hMOS also directly reduce pathogenic microbial infections by serving as antiadhesives against pathogenic microbes, and stimulating immune responses. Many babies have limited access to human milk, and alternative sources for hMOS are not available in nature. Infant formula with the commercial prebiotics lack pathogen exclusion and immune and barrier modulating effects exerted by hMOS. Development of efficient routes for synthesis of hMOS or structurally/functionally effective mimics is currently focus of attention. At present, whole cell biosynthetic routes and single/multiple enzyme biocatalytic systems for synthesis of hMOS (mimics) are studied. In this project, the glucansucrases Gtf180-ΔN and GtfA-ΔN from Lactobacillus reuteri were used to glucosylate lactose or GOS. The mixture of glucosylated lactose derivatives obtained showed selective effects on growth of various gut bacteria, including lactobacilli, bifidobacteria and commensal bacteria. Mutational analysis of Gtf180-ΔN revealed that three amino acid residues (N1029, W1065 and Q1140) play important roles in determining linkage specificity in lactose trans-glycosylation. Finally, trans-sialidase from Trypanosoma cruzi was used to transfer sialic acid to mixtures of glucosylated-lactose, galactosylated-lactulose and galacto-oligosaccharide (Vivinal GOS) molecules. The newly synthesized galactose-containing oligosaccharides and sialylated oligosaccharides hold strong potential for further applications as hMOS mimics. Glucansucrase and trans-sialidase enzymes are promising tools as biocatalysts for efficient synthesis of new functional oligosaccharides

FOSTERING STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES IN ENGLISH WRITING WITH MICROBLOGGING IN TWITTER

Twitter and Microblogging are two separate entities but completes each other. Both of them can be used as language learning tools and their potential has been proved by several scholars. This study tries to examine students’ experiences in integrating microblogging with twitter. It is also study about the beneficial roles of microblogging with Twitter in language learning, its relation to writing, and its appropriateness in language learning. This study employs a qualitative research methodology, and case study as its research design. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were employed in this study to find out about participants' views about microblogging and Twitter. From this study, it can be concluded that the participants of the study underwent various experiences during the implementation of microblogging with Twitter. They also felt that microblogging with Twitter at some point advantages them to systematically arrange their ideas, and allows them to choose appropriate diction of their ideas. They also stated that Twitter can be an appropriate means in language learning, especially in English writing

Semantic relations and compound transparency: A regression study in CARIN theory

According to the CARIN theory of Gagné and Shoben (1997), conceptual relations play an important role in compound interpretation. This study develops three measures gauging the role of conceptual relations, and pits these measures against measures based on latent semantic analysis (Landauer & Dumais, 1997). The CARIN measures successfully predict response latencies in a familiarity categorization task, in a semantic transparency task, and in visual lexical decision. Of the measures based on latent semantic analysis, only a measure orthogonal to the conceptual relations, which instead gauges the extent to which the concepts for the compound’s head and the compound itself are discriminated, also reached significance. Results further indicate that in tasks requiring careful assessment of the meaning of the compound, general knowledge of conceptual relations plays a central role, whereas in the lexical decision task, attention shifts to co-activated meanings and the specifics of the conceptual relations realized in the compound’s modifier family

How Information Design Shapes Optimal Selling Mechanisms

A monopolistic seller jointly designs allocation rules and (new) information about a pay-off relevant state to a buyer with private types. When the new information flips the ranking of willingness to pay across types, a screening menu of prices and threshold disclosures is optimal. Conversely, when its impact is marginal, bunching via a single posted price and threshold disclosure is (approximately) optimal. While information design expands the scope for random mechanisms to outperform their deterministic counterparts, its presence leads to an equivalence result regarding sequential versus. static screening

English compound meaning predictability: an exploratory cross-linguistic study

Compound words are integral to the development of word knowledge in English. This study explored cross-linguistic similarities and differences in compound-meaning inference, focusing on the semantic relation between the modifier and head in noun-noun compounds. Semantic relation specifies how the meanings of the modifier and head are combined. Although some less-established compounds allow multiple semantic relation, causing ambiguity in meaning, L1 speakers of English typically prefer using semantic relation/meaning. This study investigated whether English L2 students would be able to identify the dominant semantic relation of ambiguous novel compounds (e.g., child art). Two groups of English L2 university students, a Thai L1 group and a Vietnamese L1 group, completed a multiple-choice format, compound-meaning inference task, in which they identified the dominant meanings, as preferred by a group of native speakers of English. Results indicated that the Thai L1 and Vietnamese L1 groups did not differ in their overall mean scores for the dominant meanings, although they demonstrated some differences at the item level. This study discusses the need for more cross-linguistic studies in compound words