"Community Development Banking, A Proposal to Establish a Nationwide System of Community Development Banks"

This brief proposes that the establishment of a nationwide system of community development banks (CDBs) would advance the capital development of the economy. The proposal is based on the notion that a critical function of the financial system is not being adequately performed by existing institutions for low-income citizens, inner-city minorities, and entrepreneurs who seek modest financing for small businesses. The primary goals of the CDBs are to deliver credit, payment, and savings opportunities to communities not well served by banks and to provide financing throughout a designated area for businesses too small to attract the interest of the investment banking and normal commercial banking communities.

A new perspective on GCRT J1745-3009

Two WSRT observations were performed and five archival VLA data were reduced in order to redetect the enigmatic radio transient GCRT J1745-3009. The source was not redetected. We were, however, able to extract important new information from the discovery dataset. Our reanalysis excludes models that predict symmetric bursts, but the transient white dwarf pulsar is favoured. Although we now have more contraints on the properties of this source, we are still unsure about its basic model.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Global unions: chasing the dream or building the reality?

This article takes as its theme the global restructuring of capital and its impact on worker organization. It argues for a reassertion of class in any analysis of global solidarity, and assesses the opportunities and barriers to effective global unionization. Rooted in the UK experience, the article analyzes the impact of the European social dimension on trade unions, before taking the discussion into a global dimension. It concludes by suggesting that there are reasons for cautious optimism in terms of solidarity building, despite difficult historical legacies and the common replacement of action with rhetoric

Similarity Analysis of Nonlinear Equations and Bases of Finite Wavelength Solitons

We introduce a generalized similarity analysis which grants a qualitative description of the localised solutions of any nonlinear differential equation. This procedure provides relations between amplitude, width, and velocity of the solutions, and it is shown to be useful in analysing nonlinear structures like solitons, dublets, triplets, compact supported solitons and other patterns. We also introduce kink-antikink compact solutions for a nonlinear-nonlinear dispersion equation, and we construct a basis of finite wavelength functions having self-similar properties.Comment: 18 pages Latex, 6 figures ep

Time-resolved ferromagnetic resonance in epitaxial Fe1-xCox films

Magnetodynamics in epitaxial Fe1-xCox films on GaAs (100) are studied using time-resolved ferromagnetic resonance, in which the free precession of the magnetization after an impulsive excitation is measured using the polar Kerr effect. The sample is rotated with respect to the static and pulsed field directions, providing a complete mapping of the free energy surface and characteristic relaxation times. The magnetic response can be simulated with a simple coherent rotation model except in the immediate vicinity of switching fields. Bulk and surface anisotropies are identified, and unusual dynamics associated with the coexistence of cubic and uniaxial anisotropies are observed.Comment: PDF - 4 figure

Cell proliferation and differentiation kinetics during spermatogenesis in Hydra carnea

Spermatogenesis inHydra carnea was investigated. The cell proliferation and differentiation kinetics of intermediates in the spermatogenesis pathway were determined, using quantitative determinations of cell abundance, pulse and continuous labelling with3H-thymidine and nuclear DNA measurements. Testes develop in the ectoderm of male hydra as a result of interstitial cell proliferation. Gonial stem cells and proliferating spermatogonia have cell cycles of 28 h and 22 h, respectively. Stem cells undergo four, five or six cell divisions prior to meiosis which includes a premeiotic S+G2 phase of 20 h followed by a long meiotic prophase (22 h). Spermatid differentiation requires 12–29 h. When they first appear, testes contain only proliferating spermatogonia; meiotic and postmeiotic cells appear after 2 and 3 days, respectively and release of mature sperm begins after 4 days. Mature testes produce about 27,000 sperm per day over a period of 4–6 days: about 220 gonial stem cells per testis are required to support this level of sperm differentiation. Further results indicate that somatic (e.g. nematocyte) differentiation does not occur in testes although it continues normally in ectodermal tissue outside testes. Our results support the hypothesis that spermatogenesis is controlled locally in regions of the ectoderm where testes develop

Immunoglobulin-A distribution in glomerular disease: Analysis of immunofluorescence localization and pathogenetic significance

Immunoglobulin-A distribution in glomerular disease. Analysis of immunofluorescence localization and pathogenetic significance. Renal biopsies from 470 patients with various glomemlonephropathies were studied for patterns and frequency of glomerular bound IgA. Correlations of IgA with IgG, IgM, C3, and C4 were made. Glomerular deposits of IgA were observed in five of six cases of Henoch-Schoenlein anaphylactoid nephritis (83%), stalk proliferative glomerulonephritis (73%), lupus nephritis (60%), and focal proliferative glomerulonephritis (57 %). In addition, IgA was less frequently observed in diffuse (acute) proliferative (33%), membranoproliferative (42%), membranous (32%), focal sclerosing (25%) crescentic (26%), and chronic glomerulonephritides (23%) as well as malignant arterionephrosclerosis, amyloidosis, and a group of patients with minimal glomerular alteration and no determinable diagnosis (40%). IgA was not specifically associated with IgG or IgM in any one diagnostic category but was often present with both. Deposits containing C3 and C4 most closely paralleled those of IgG and/or IgM. Presence of IgA appeared to correlate with variable degrees of increased glomerular mesangial cellularity in “minimal”, stalk proliferative, and focal-segmental glomerular lesions. The cause and immunopathogenetic significance of mesangial or peripheral glomerular capillary localization of IgA is unknown. Though a number of apparent examples of what has been referred to as IgA-IgG nephropathy were observed in this study, this entity, characterized by mesangial deposits of IgA, IgG, and C3, could not always be specifically identified or differentiated on histopathologic criteria alone from a variety of other glomerulopathies in which variable proportions of IgA, IgG, IgM, C3, and C4 globulins were localized