The visual and material dimensions of legitimacy:Accounting and the search for Socie-ties

We are grateful to the Fondation Audencia for the financial support provided for our archival research.The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature on legitimacy by investigating its material and visual dimensions. By drawing on studies on rhetoric as a means of composing visions of social order and on an historical analysis of accounts in three paradigmatic eras (Roman times, Renaissance and Modernity), it shows how symmetry in accounts constituted an aesthetic code which tied members of a community together in ‘socie-ties’. We investigate the rhetorical process of ratiocinatio and explore how the visual and material dimensions of accounts provided social actors with an opportunity to explore their positions and ties within a community. This process augmented social actors’ understanding of their current relations by reducing them to a series of entries into an account, thus allowing them to reflect on what it meant to be a legitimate member of a society.PostprintPeer reviewe

Why do banks promise to pay par on demand?

We survey the theories of why banks promise to pay par on demand and examine evidence about the conditions under which banks have promised to pay the par value of deposits and banknotes on demand when holding only fractional reserves. The theoretical literature can be broadly divided into four strands: liquidity provision, asymmetric information, legal restrictions, and a medium of exchange. We assume that it is not zero cost to make a promise to redeem a liability at par value on demand. If so, then the conditions in the theories that result in par redemption are possible explanations of why banks promise to pay par on demand. If the explanation based on customers’ demand for liquidity is correct, payment of deposits at par will be promised when banks hold assets that are illiquid in the short run. If the asymmetric-information explanation based on the difficulty of valuing assets is correct, the marketability of banks’ assets determines whether banks promise to pay par. If the legal restrictions explanation of par redemption is correct, banks will not promise to pay par if they are not required to do so. If the transaction explanation is correct, banks will promise to pay par value only if the deposits are used in transactions. After the survey of the theoretical literature, we examine the history of banking in several countries in different eras: fourth-century Athens, medieval Italy, Japan, and free banking and money market mutual funds in the United States. We find that all of the theories can explain some of the observed banking arrangements, and none explain all of them

Elaboration and electro-optic study of a new type of open porosity PDLC

A new polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) system characterized by easy processing and an open porosity has been elaborated. This PDLC is based on a pre-formed, porous, thin polymer film of a commercially available PVDF-HFP copolymer wetted by the eutectic mixture of cyano bi- and ter-phenyls known as E7 (Merck Ltd, UK). This new process is of interest because of its simplicity, and the fact that there is no risk of intermixing between the liquid crystal and the polymer matrix as occurs in a conventional PDLC. An electric field applied across the thin film results in a change in its transmission, due to the reorientation of the liquid crystal director, as already known for closed porosity PDLCs. The electro-optic properties of this PDLC have been studied and semi-quantitatively interpreted on the basis of the response theory of conventional closed porosity PDLCs

CIL IV, 9591 : un transport de bl\ue9 entre Ostie et Pomp\ue9i \u2013 II

CIL IV, 9591: A grain transport between Ostia and Pompeii. In a previous article (2016), we established the text of a seven-line inscription written on the wall of a small vase found at Pompeii, the container of a sample of grain. We outline here our comments. The grain originated from Africa and was bound for Ostia. To explain why it was redirected to Pompeii, we rely on the recently published inscription of the tomb of Alleius Nigidius Maius, which exemplifies the possibility of periods of shortage and high grain prices in Pompeii, in this case around the middle of the first century. We surmise that the same thing occurred after the 62 earthquake: the magister nauis arriving at Ostia was informed of a better price at Pompeii and decided to change the ship\u2019s destination. The inscription affords the only realistic price of maritime shipping in the Roman period. The article ends with a short commentary on the shipping costs and a study of the paleography of the inscription

Cell death by mitotic catastrophe: a molecular definition

The current literature is devoid of a clearcut definition of mitotic catastrophe, a type of cell death that occurs during mitosis. Here, we propose that mitotic catastrophe results from a combination of deficient cell-cycle checkpoints (in particular the DNA structure checkpoints and the spindle assembly checkpoint) and cellular damage. Failure to arrest the cell cycle before or at mitosis triggers an attempt of aberrant chromosome segregation, which culminates in the activation of the apoptotic default pathway and cellular demise. Cell death occurring during the metaphase/anaphase transition is characterized by the activation of caspase-2 (which can be activated in response to DNA damage) and/or mitochondrial membrane permeabilization with the release of cell death effectors such as apoptosis-inducing factor and the caspase-9 and-3 activator cytochrome c. Although the morphological aspect of apoptosis may be incomplete, these alterations constitute the biochemical hallmarks of apoptosis. Cells that fail to execute an apoptotic program in response to mitotic failure are likely to divide asymmetrically in the next round of cell division, with the consequent generation of aneuploid cells. This implies that disabling of the apoptotic program may actually favor chromosomal instability, through the suppression of mitotic catastrophe. Mitotic catastrophe thus may be conceived as a molecular device that prevents aneuploidization, which may participate in oncogenesis. Mitotic catastrophe is controlled by numerous molecular players, in particular, cell-cycle-specific kinases (such as the cyclin B1-dependent kinase Cdk1, polo-like kinases and Aurora kinases), cell-cycle checkpoint proteins, survivin, p53, caspases and members of the Bcl-2 family

Electro-optical properties of low molecular weight liquid crystal/copolymer mixtures

Polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films can be switched electrically from a light scattering off-state to a highly transparent on-state. Mixtures including different amounts of a high molecular weight copolymer and the eutectic nematic low molecular weight liquid crystal E7 were prepared in acetone which acts as a common organic solvent. PDLC films were obtained by a solvent induced phase separation (SIPS) initiated by evaporation of the solvent. The optical transmission properties of the obtained PDLC films were investigated as a function of composition, film thickness, and amplitude of the applied AC voltage. The electro-optical curves depend on the liquid crystal content and are highly reproducible. The particular properties of the copolymer allow to obtain a strong physical polymer network which in turn leads to well defined films compared to results obtained for other linear polymer/E7 systems. © 2001 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Gordon and Breach Science Publishers imprint. a member of the Taylor & Francis Group,

Raman scattering from liquid crystals

The use of Raman scattering technique as a tool for studying local order in complex liquid crystal systems is illustrated by three examples, namely the locally anisotropic liquid L-phase, lipid membranes, and PDLC's. © 2001 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Gordon and Breach Science Publishers imprint, a member of the Taylor & Francis Group,