Governmental Intervention in an Economic Crisis

This paper articulates a framework both for assessing the various government bailouts that took place at the onset of Great Recession and for guiding future rescue efforts when they become necessary. The goals for those engineering a bailout should be to be as transparent as possible, to articulate clearly the reason for the intervention, to respect existing priorities among investors, to exercise control only at the top level where such efforts can be seen by the public, and to exit as soon as possible. By these metrics, some of the recent bailouts should be applauded, while others fell short. We also explore the related question of what level of judicial scrutiny is appropriate for government actions taken during a bailout. We eschew the extremes of no judicial review on the one hand and full recourse to the courts on the other. Courts need to avoid interfering in a time of crisis, yet, when normalcy has returned, they should measure the actions taken against applicable legislative and constitutional requirements

Hydroperiod of Intermittent Headwater Streams in the Northern Glaciated Plains

Intermittent streams comprise 90% of stream and river miles in South Dakota. Hydroperiod (duration of flow) was examined in 60 intermittent headwater streams in the Northern Glaciated Plains ecoregion of eastern South Dakota. HOBO (Onset Inc.) temperature loggers were used to track daily temperature amplitudes and allowed detection of drying dates. Streams began to flow in April following spring snowmelt and 83% of streams were either pooled or dry by early September. The majority of drying occurred in June and July. Streams commonly fluctuated between hydrologic phases and several study sites were re-wetted after initial drying. Level IV ecoregions within the Northern Glaciated Plains showed variability in hydroperiod. All sites studied in the Drift Plains (46i) dried completely during the study period, while only 50% of sites in the Prairie Coteau (46k) dried. Results show that intermittent streams in the Northern Glaciated Plains have seasonal characteristics which create implications for monitoring that are different from perennial streams

Family-Level Community Structure of Insects Inhabiting Intermittent Streams within the Northern Glaciated Plains

Intermittent streams comprise about 90% of stream and river miles, and the Northern Glaciated Plains (NGP) ecoregion (46) encompasses about 33% of land area in South Dakota. Currently, little is known about the macroinvertebrate communities inhabiting intermittent streams in this region. This information is crucial if deviations from reference (undisturbed) conditions are to be made. This study examined the aquatic insect communities in intermittent streams (n = 12) located in four level IV ecoregions (Prairie Coteau 46k, Prairie Coteau Escarpment 46l, Big Sioux Basin 46m, James River Lowland 46n) within the NGP. Invertebrates were collected using a quantitative bucket technique with a 500-μm petite net. A total of 26 families were identified from 7 insect orders. Chironomidae (Order Diptera) comprised the majority (mean=83%, range=53- 89%) of invertebrates found. Taxa from 5 functional feeding groups were collected with collector-gatherer taxa being represented the most (mean=91% of total abundance, range=86-93%). All 6 invertebrate habit guilds were also represented with burrowers being the most common (mean=84% of total abundance, range=73-93%). There were no significant differences found in total richness, FFG, and habit guilds among the different level IV ecoregions within the NGP. Further sampling efforts during summer 2008 and identification to a lower level (genus or species) will allow us to better describe and possibly detect differences in macroinvertebrate communities of intermittent streams in the NGP

Stiffness Reduction of Cold-Formed Steel Structures Subject to Sectional Buckling and Yielding

The paper develops a stiffness reduction factor to be used in geometric nonlinear beam-element type elastic analysis of cold-formed steel structures. The factor accounts for the reduction in flexural and warping torsion rigidities resulting from local and distortional buckling as well as residuals stresses, as particular to cold-formed steel structures. The purpose of applying the factor is to accurately account for the geometric second order effects when predicting the internal distributions of moments of cold-formed steel structural frames. The stiffness reduction factor arising from local and distortional buckling is first determined followed by the stiffness reduction factor caused by residual stresses. Subsequently, the two effects are combined in a single expression is a format suitable for incorporation in the North American specification for cold-formed steel structures, AISI-S100

The Role of the IMF in Future Sovereign Debt Restructurings: Report of the Annenberg House Expert Group

A meeting of international finance and insolvency experts was held on November 2, 2013 at the Annenberg House in Santa Monica, California. The meeting was co-hosted by the USC Law School and the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands. The goal was to solicit the views of experts on the implications of the IMF’s April 26, 2013 paper captioned “Sovereign Debt Restructuring -- Recent Developments and Implications for the Fund’s Legal and Policy Framework”. The April 26 paper may signal a shift in IMF policies in the area of sovereign debt workouts. Although the Expert Group discussed a number of the ideas contained in the April 26 paper, attention focused on paragraph 32 of that paper. That paragraph states in relevant part: “There may be a case for exploring additional ways to limit the risk that Fund resources will simply be used to bail out private creditors. For example, a presumption could be established that some form of a creditor bail-in measure would be implemented as a condition for Fund lending in cases where, although no clear-cut determination has been made that the debt is unsustainable, the member has lost market access and prospects for regaining market access are uncertain.” This Report summarizes the consensus views of the Expert Group on the practical implications of the suggestions contained in paragraph 32 of the April 26 paper

Maternal Pre‐Pregnancy Body Mass Index Is Not Associated With Infant and Young Child Feeding in Low‐Income Mexican Children 1–24 Months Old

Pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity is associated with shorter breastfeeding (BF) duration. Whether pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity is associated with other aspects of infant and young child feeding (IYCF) hasnot been investigated. We used data from 370 children born January 1999–September 2001 in a semi-urbancommunity in Morelos, Mexico, where information on how they were fed was available at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24months of age. We modified the World Health Organization’s dietary diversity indicator to assess the quality ofthe complementary foods. An index that included BF, quality of complementary foods and other behaviours wasconstructed to measure IYCF. We used survival analysis to examine the association of pre-pregnancy body massindex (pBMI) category and BF duration and mixed models for quality of complementary food and IYCF index.Mean maternal pBMI was 24.44.1; 31% were overweight, and 9% were obese. pBMI was not associated with BF duration. Quality of complementary food improved over time (6 months, 1.3 1.3; 24 months, 3.8 1.04).Compared with normal-weight women, overweight and obese women were more likely to feed from more foodgroups (0.24 0.11 point,P=0.03), but this did not improve diet diversity from 6 to 24 months. IYCF indexdecreased throughout follow-up (1 month, 7.8 2.4; 24 months, 5.5 1.8), and pBMI was not associated withIYCF (-0.11 0.13 point,P=0.4). We conclude that heavier women were not engaging in IYCF behaviours thatwere distinct from those of normal-weight women from 1 to 24 months post-partum

Strengths and Fracture Strains of Weld and HAZ in Welded Connections

This paper investigates the strengths and fracture strains of weld and heat affected zone (HAZ) in welded connections for both the longitudinal and transverse directions and compares them to those of the base metal. A series of miniature coupons, including miniature flat plates, notched round bars and grooved plates, were extracted from the three zones of a butt weld and tested using a custom-built jig. The true stress-strain relationships and fracture strains of the base metal, weld and HAZ materials were obtained for both directions from the miniature coupon tests and corresponding numerical simulations. The fracture strain data were used to calibrate the Lode angle modified void growth model (LMVGM) for predicting the fracture strain of the three material zones at any given stress state. The following major conclusions were drawn: (1) The weld was generally isotropic in terms of both strength and fracture strain. The weld also had the highest values of yield and tensile strengths among the three materials in both directions, but the lowest fracture strain in both directions except for the longitudinal direction with stress triaxiality above 0.21 to 0.30, for which the base metal had the lowest fracture strain. (2) The HAZ had higher yield and tensile strengths but smaller fracture strain in the longitudinal direction than in the transverse direction. The same anisotropic characteristic applied to the base metal. Meanwhile, the HAZ had higher yield and tensile strengths than the base metal as well as similar but slightly larger fracture strains in both directions. (3) The yield and tensile strengths of the weld and HAZ can be approximated using the empirical hardness-strength correlation functions, except that the functions tend to overestimate the strengths of the weld by about 10%. (4) For the weld, HAZ and base metal, the fracture surfaces tilted towards stress states with high stress triaxiality and low Lode angle parameter, indicating that fracture can initiate more easily at these stress states. Note that the above conclusions are limited to the tested AS350 grade steel and the selected welding parameters

Fracture Investigation of Welded Cruciform Connections

As one of the main failure modes of steel structures, fracture in welded connections has widely been discussed based on experimental investigations and numerical simulations. However, the mechanical properties of the weld and Heat Affected Zone (HAZ), such as stress-strain relationships and fracture strains under various stress states, have rarely been considered in these analyses. Therefore, in this paper, the fracture process of welded connections is discussed to investigate the effects of the inhomogeneity of mechanical properties in the weld zone. Tensile tests are conducted on welded cruciform specimens fabricated using 8 mm or 12 mm fillet welds and finite element models are developed by considering or ignoring the material inhomogeneity in the weld zone. The simulation results are compared with the experimental and it is concluded that the assumption of homogenous properties within the weld zone using the properties of the base metal will underestimate the strength of the welded cruciform specimens and using the mechanical properties of the three material areas in the weld zone will increase the accuracy of the simulation results. Using the free parameters calibrated by the fracture strains of the three material areas, the fracture process of the welded cruciform specimens is simulated using the fracture model LMVGM, and the comparison shows that the mechanical properties of the weld and HAZ should be included in the investigation of fracture in welded connections to obtain reliable simulation results

X Chromosome Inactivation and Differentiation Occur Readily in ES Cells Doubly-Deficient for MacroH2A1 and MacroH2A2

Macrohistones (mH2As) are unusual histone variants found exclusively in vertebrate chromatin. In mice, the H2afy gene encodes two splice variants, mH2A1.1 and mH2A1.2 and a second gene, H2afy2, encodes an additional mH2A2 protein. Both mH2A isoforms have been found enriched on the inactive X chromosome (Xi) in differentiated mammalian female cells, and are incorporated into the chromatin of developmentally-regulated genes. To investigate the functional significance of mH2A isoforms for X chromosome inactivation (XCI), we produced male and female embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines with stably-integrated shRNA constructs that simultaneously target both mH2A1 and mH2A2. Surprisingly, we find that female ESCs deficient for both mH2A1 and mH2A2 readily execute and maintain XCI upon differentiation. Furthermore, male and female mH2A-deficient ESCs proliferate normally under pluripotency culture conditions, and respond to several standard differentiation procedures efficiently. Our results show that XCI can readily proceed with substantially reduced total mH2A content