An investigation of phototropism in solution

Imperial Users onl

The politics of loan pricing in multilateral development banks

Chris Humphrey, who received his PhD from the Department of International Development in 2013, has published an article in the most recent issue of Review of International Political Economy (2014, 21:3, 611-639) analyzing the political factors that shape the price of loans offered by three multilateral development banks (MDBs)—the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF)

Market risk reporting by the world's top banks:evidence on the diversity of reporting practice and the implications for international accounting harmonisation

The increasing adoption of international accounting standards and global convergence of accounting regulations is frequently heralded as serving to reduce diversity in financial reporting practice. In a process said to be driven in large part by the interests of international business and global financial markets, one might expect the greatest degree of convergence to be found amongst the world’s largest multinational financial corporations. This paper challenges such claims and presumptions. Its content analysis of longitudinal data for the period 2000-2006 reveals substantial, on going diversity in the market risk disclosure practices, both numerical and narrative, of the world’s top-25 banks. The significance of such findings is reinforced by the sheer scale of the banking sector’s risk exposures that have been subsequently revealed in the current global financial crisis. The variations in disclosure practices documented in the paper apply both across and within national boundaries, leading to a firm conclusion that, at least in terms of market risk reporting, progress towards international harmonisation remains rather more apparent than real

Sustainability and Infrastructure Investment: National Development Banks in Africa

The need for infrastructure finance in Africa is tremendous. A 2009 report by the World Bank suggests that the continent faces needs of US$93 billion per year. More recent studies, pointing to economic and population growth trends and using more sophisticated methods of assessing needs, indicate that infrastructure needs are actually much higher. Existing financing sources have not been able to keep pace. In this context, the role of national development banks (NDBs) in the continent merits attention. As will be shown below, many African countries have NDBs, although the vast majority are quite small, with limited access to finance and short on capacity. A few, however, are more significant players, particularly in infrastructure (notably in Algeria and South Africa), and others are undergoing reforms under governments that see their potential as an additional source of finance and expertise to promote their country’s development (such as Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda). The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the activities of NDBs in Africa, and present two case studies of South African NDBs — Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) — that may provide lessons for other NDBs in Africa and beyond. Where data permit, the paper considers general characteristics of the NDBs as well as specific information regarding investment in sustainable infrastructure

Mechanisms of pelvic floor muscle function and the effect on the urethra during a cough

Background: Current measurement tools have difficulty identifying the automaticphysiologic processes maintaining continence, and many questions still remainabout pelvic floor muscle (PFM) function during automatic events.Objective: To perform a feasibility study to characterise the displacement, velocity,and acceleration of the PFM and the urethra during a cough.Design, setting, and participants: A volunteer convenience sample of 23 continentwomen and 9 women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) from the generalcommunity of San Francisco Bay Area was studied.Measurements: Methods included perineal ultrasound imaging, motion trackingof the urogenital structures, and digital vaginal examination. Statistical analysisused one-tailed unpaired student t tests, and Welch’s correction was applied whenvariances were unequal.Results and limitations: The cough reflex activated the PFM of continent women tocompress the urogenital structures towards the pubic symphysis, which wasabsent in women with SUI. The maximum accelerations that acted on the PFMduring a cough were generally more similar than the velocities and displacements.The urethras of women with SUI were exposed to uncontrolled transverse accelerationand were displaced more than twice as far ( p = 0.0002), with almost twicethe velocity ( p = 0.0015) of the urethras of continent women. Caution regardingthe generalisability of this study is warranted due to the small number of women inthe SUI group and the significant difference in parity between groups.Conclusions: During a cough, normal PFM function produces timely compressionof the pelvic floor and additional external support to the urethra, reducing displacement,velocity, and acceleration. In women with SUI, who have weakerurethral attachments, this shortening contraction does not occur; consequently,the urethras of women with SUI move further and faster for a longer duratio

The dynamics of urban festal culture in later medieval England.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN014770 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The Impact of External Debt on Zambia’s Economic Growth: An ARDL Approach

This paper examines empirically the impact of External debt on the Economic growth in Zambia using annual time series data spanning 1980 to 2014 and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) or bounds testing approach to cointegration. External debt is found to have a positive relationship with economic growth in the short run and a negative relationship in the long run. The long run results indicated that external debt accumulation has a negative impact on economic growth. This confirms the existence of a debt overhang problem in Zambia. Debt servicing is also found to have a significant and negative impact on GDP growth in the short-run. As the debt servicing tends to increase, there will be less opportunities for economic growth. Debt servicing is found to have crowding out effects on economic growth in the short-run. In addition, the Granger causality test was used to check for the direction of causality among the variables. The findings established a unidirectional causality from external debt to economic growth. Consequently, the study recommends, that government should embark on prudent borrowing and encourage export-oriented growth. Keywords: HIPC, external debt, debt overhang, ARDL, Economic growth, Granger causalit

Interprofessional Education: A Team Approach in the Classroom

Interprofessional education is an increasingly common component of course work for health care professionals. Extant research provides examples of these collaborations across multiple health disciplines, however, there is no research that addresses interprofessional education between the fields of occupational therapy and dietetics. This study was conducted in order to fill the gap of extant research related to unique collaborations between occupational therapy and dietetics. The Interprofessional Attitudes Scale was given to occupational therapy and dietetic students pre/post participation in an interprofessional, active learning, educational case-study. There was one item on the scale that demonstrated a statistically significant change (“shared learning before graduation will help me become a better team worker”), while all other items showed only a slight positive increase. While this study suggests that students value interprofessional education, there is further research needed to determine what types of interprofessional education are most impactful for students at various levels of education

Variation in the timing of enamel formation in modern human deciduous canines

OBJECTIVES: Deciduous canines are now used increasingly in archaeological and forensic studies to establish the time of birth and as a retrospective source of trace elements incorporated into enamel before and after birth. However, data on the variability of deciduous enamel formation times are scarce. Our objectives were to use daily incremental markings to estimate daily secretion rates, the timing of prenatal, postnatal and total enamel formation and any changes in enamel coverage or prism and stria orientation that occur during enamel formation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Longitudinal ground sections of 81 deciduous canines were studied with transmitted light microscopy. High-resolution digital images were imported from an Olympus VS-120 virtual slide scanning system into a geographic information system (ArcGIS, ESRI USA) for quantitative and statistical analyses of linear, angular and area measurements of buccal enamel. RESULTS: Daily rates of enamel secretion close to the EDJ were faster than in permanent enamel (3.23 μm/day, SD = 0.54). Prism and stria angles subtended to the EDJ both increased through crown formation. Enamel coverage was low in the cusp and cervix but maximal ∼150 days after birth. The mean prenatal enamel formation time was 118 days (range 60-150, SD, 29.2, n = 24). The overall mean postnatal enamel formation time was 319 days (range 210-420, SD 50.6, n = 67). CONCLUSIONS: Daily enamel secretion rates compared well with previous studies of deciduous enamel, however, enamel extension rates in deciduous cuspal enamel were notably lower. The variability of both prenatal and postnatal deciduous enamel formation times was greater than previously reported