Potential employment effects of the restructuring of retail banking

The author explains that two steps being taken by banks to restructure their branch systems--the substitution of supermarket branches for traditional offices and the expansion of telephone banking through twenty-four-hour phone centers--may adversely affect employment in New York State as well as across the country.Banks and banking - Customer services ; Branch banks

The expanding geographic reach of retail banking markets

In the view of most policymakers and economists, competition in retail banking takes place in local markets the size of a single county or metropolitan area. This article presents evidence that the locus of banking competition has in recent years shifted to larger geographic arenas. The author's review of 1997 survey data reveals that many banks set uniform rates for both deposits and retail loans across an entire state or broad regions of a large state. Regression analysis of the relationship between retail deposit rates and measures of market concentration further supports this expansion in market size: the clear relationship that earlier studies detected between individual banks' deposit rates and measures of concentration at the local level is no longer evident, while a relationship does emerge at the state level.Bank competition ; Bank deposits ; Retail trade ; Local finance

Life testing of metal-ceramic CO2 lasers

The main purpose of this program was to determine the life characteristics of nine space-qualified, metal-ceramic CO2 lasers. Lifetimes ranged between about 400 hours to over 2000 hours (the limit of testing) with a high degree of consistency in like groups. In all cases the tubes which had failed could be restored to near their original power by doubling the cathode current for 30 minutes. Periodic rejuvenation allowed operation for the full 2000 hours on all tubes. The failure mechanism appears to involve formation of NiO and C on the nickel cathode emission surface with subsequent absorption of tube gases

Technology: driving specialization or enabling diversification (or both)?

Financial services industry ; Technology

The globalization of financial markets and the effectiveness of monetary policy instruments

Monetary policy ; Money market ; Interest rates

Inversion of Eddy-Current Data via Conjugate Gradients

In a companion paper, [1], we developed a rigorous, nonlinear model for inverting eddy-current data by means of the conjugate gradient algorithm. In this paper we will present some results obtained from the linearized version of the rigorous model. In this version we assume that the electric field within the flaw is simply the incident field that exists in the absence of the flaw

Hydrologic and Water Quality Monitoring on Turkey Creek Watershed, Francis Marion National Forest, SC

2008 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Addressing Water Challenges Facing the State and Regio

The household demand for money: estimates from cross-sectional data

Money ; Consumer behavior

Heparin Reduces Neuroinflammation and Transsynaptic Neuronal Apoptosis in a Model of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) can lead to disabling motor, cognitive, and neuropsychological abnormalities. Part of the secondary injury to cerebral tissues associated with SAH is attributable to the neuroinflammatory response induced by blood. Heparin is a pleiotropic compound that reduces inflammatory responses in conditions outside the central nervous system. Using a model of SAH devoid of global insult, we evaluated the effect of delayed intravenous (IV) infusion of heparin, at a dose that does not produce therapeutic anticoagulation, on neuroinflammation, myelin preservation, and apoptosis. Adult male rats underwent bilateral stereotactic injections of autologous blood (50 μL) into the subarachnoid space of the entorhinal cortex. The rats were implanted with mini-osmotic pumps that delivered either vehicle or unfractionated heparin (10 U/kg/h IV) beginning 12 h after SAH. No mechanical or hemorrhagic injury was observed in the hippocampus. In vehicle controls assessed at 48 h, SAH was associated with robust neuroinflammation in the adjacent cortex [neutrophils, activated phagocytic microglia, nuclear factor-kappa B, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and interleukin-1beta] and neurodegeneration (Fluoro-Jade C staining and loss of NeuN). In the hippocampus, a muted neuroinflammatory response was indicated by Iba1-positive, ED1-negative microglia exhibiting an activated morphology. The perforant pathway showed Fluoro-Jade C staining and demyelination, and granule cells of the dentate gyrus had pyknotic nuclei, labeled with Fluoro-Jade C and showed upregulation of cleaved caspase-3, consistent with transsynaptic apoptosis. Administration of heparin significantly reduced neuroinflammation, demyelination, and transsynaptic apoptosis. We conclude that delayed IV infusion of low-dose unfractionated heparin may attenuate adverse neuroinflammatory effects of SAH