Competition and Innovation: Evidence from Financial Services

In this paper we seek to contribute to the literature on competition and innovation by focusing on individual firms within the U.S. banking industry in the period 1984-2004. We measure innovation by estimating technology gaps and find evidence of an inverted-U relationship between competition and the technology gaps in banking. This finding is robust over several different specifications and is consistent with theoretical and empirical work by Aghion, Bloom, Blundell, Griffith, and Howitt (2005b). The optimal amount of innovation requires a slightly positive mark up. Also, we find that the U.S. banking industry as a whole has consolidated beyond this optimal innovation level and that state-level interstate banking deregulation has lowered innovation.competition, innovation, stochastic frontier analysis, technology gap ratio, banking

Diving behaviour of whale sharks in relation to a predictable food pulse

We present diving data for four whale sharks in relation to a predictable food pulse (reef fish spawn) and an analysis of the longest continuous fine-resolution diving record for a planktivorous shark. Fine-resolution pressure data from a recovered pop-up archival satellite tag deployed for 206 days on a whale shark were analysed using the fast Fourier Transform method for frequency domain analysis of time-series. The results demonstrated that a free-ranging whale shark displays ultradian, diel and circa-lunar rhythmicity of diving behaviour. Whale sharks dive to over 979.5 m and can tolerate a temperature range of 26.4 degrees C. The whale sharks made primarily diurnal deep dives and remained in relatively shallow waters at night. Whale shark diving patterns are influenced by a seasonally predictable food source, with shallower dives made during fish spawning periods

Continuously available virtual environments

This thesis presents a framework for continuously available persistent collaborative virtual environments which is fundamentally more flexible than current approaches. Whereas existing systems allow the artefacts in the environment and the application behaviours of those artefacts to be changed at run time, they still need to be shut down if the infrastructure mechanisms of the system need to be changed. The framework presented by this thesis pushes run-time extensibility to a lower level allowing previously static infrastructure mechanisms and application level behaviours to be replaced and extended in a uniform way. By associating infrastructure mechanisms with artefacts in the same way that application behaviours are associated, the framework allows multiple alternative infrastructure mechanisms to coexist within the virtual environment system. Rather than applying a single infrastructure mechanism to all artefacts in a virtual environment, mechanisms can be tailored to an artefact’s role, optimising the operation of each artefact. This allows a wider range of artefact behaviours and so applications to be supported by a single virtual environment. Infrastructure level behaviours may implement a single infrastructure mechanism or multiple mechanisms, allowing the framework to explicitly present the complex interdependencies which can exist between infrastructure mechanisms such as persistence and consistency. In addition to providing greater run-time flexibility for continuously available persistent virtual environments, the framework allows infrastructure mechanisms to be easily developed, compared, tested and configured, making it a useful test bed for the development of future infrastructure mechanisms. After reviewing existing virtual environment systems and related systems, the thesis presents an experiment which reveals some of the problems existing with current approaches to persistence in virtual environments. The thesis then describes the framework discussed above and the issues involved in its realisation before evaluating the current prototype. Finally some conclusions are presented and future work discussed

Is Cycle 24 the Beginning of a Dalton-Like Minimum?

The unexpected development of cycle 24 emphasizes the need for a better way to model future solar activity. In this article, we analyze the accumulation of spotless days during individual cycles from 1798-2010. The analysis shows that spotless days do not disappear abruptly in the transition towards an active sun. A comparison with past cycles indicates that the ongoing accumulation of spotless days is comparable to that of cycle 5 near the Dalton minimum and to that of cycles 12, 14 and 15. It also suggests that the ongoing cycle has as much as 20 \pm 8 spotless days left, from July 2010, before it reaches the next solar maximum. The last spotless day is predicted to be in December 2012, with an uncertainty of 11 months. This trend may serve as input to the solar dynamo theories.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

Is There Really a de Sitter/CFT Duality

In this paper a de Sitter Space version of Black Hole Complementarity is formulated which states that an observer in de Sitter Space describes the surrounding space as a sealed finite temperature cavity bounded by a horizon which allows no loss of information. We then discuss the implications of this for the existence of boundary correlators in the hypothesized dS/cft correspondence. We find that dS complementarity precludes the existence of the appropriate limits. We find that the limits exist only in approximations in which the entropy of the de Sitter Space is infinite. The reason that the correlators exist in quantum field theory in the de Sitter Space background is traced to the fact that horizon entropy is infinite in QFT.Comment: 12 Figures, STIAS Workshop on Quantum Gravit

Motivators and barriers to adoption of improved land management practices. A focus on practice change for water quality improvement in Great Barrier Reef catchments

To protect and improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef, the Queensland Government's Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan targets that 90% of sugarcane, horticulture, cropping and grazing lands in priority areas be managed using best management practices for sediment, nutrient and pesticides by 2025. Progress towards this target is insufficient and variable across catchments and industries. The motivation to adopt improvements in management practices is heavily influenced by social, economic, cultural and institutional dimensions. In this paper we synthesise the literature on how these human dimensions influence decision making for land management practice and highlight where future investment could be focussed. We highlight that focussing on —1) investigating systems to support landholder decision making under climate uncertainty (risk); 2) generating a better understanding of the extent and drivers of landholder transaction cost; 3) understanding if there are competing ‘right’ ways to farm; and 4) improving understanding of the social processes, trust and power dynamics within GBR industries and what these means for practice change— could improve practice change uptake in the future

The management of tree genetic resources and the livelihoods of rural communities in the tropics: non-timber forest products, smallholder agroforestry practices and tree commodity crops

Products and services provided by trees in forests and farmland support the needs and promote the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people in the tropics. Value depends on managing both the diversity of tree species present in landscapes and the genetic variation within these species. The benefits from trees and their genetic resources are, however, often not well quantified because trade is frequently outside formal markets, there is a multiplicity of species and ways in which trees are used and managed, and genetic diversity within species is frequently not given proper consideration. We review here what is known about the value of trees to rural communities through considering three production categories: non-timber products harvested from trees in natural and managed forests and woodlands; the various products and services obtained from a wide range of trees planted and/or retained in smallholders’ agroforestry systems; and the commercial products harvested from cultivated tree commodity crops. Where possible, we focus on the role of intra-specific genetic variation in providing support to livelihoods, and for each of the three production categories we also consider wider conservation and sustainability issues, including the linkages between categories in terms of management. Challenges to ‘conventional wisdom’ on tree resource use, value and management – such as in the posited links between commercialisation, cultivation and conservation – are highlighted, and constraints and opportunities to maintain and enhance value are described

Continuously available virtual environments

This thesis presents a framework for continuously available persistent collaborative virtual environments which is fundamentally more flexible than current approaches. Whereas existing systems allow the artefacts in the environment and the application behaviours of those artefacts to be changed at run time, they still need to be shut down if the infrastructure mechanisms of the system need to be changed. The framework presented by this thesis pushes run-time extensibility to a lower level allowing previously static infrastructure mechanisms and application level behaviours to be replaced and extended in a uniform way. By associating infrastructure mechanisms with artefacts in the same way that application behaviours are associated, the framework allows multiple alternative infrastructure mechanisms to coexist within the virtual environment system. Rather than applying a single infrastructure mechanism to all artefacts in a virtual environment, mechanisms can be tailored to an artefact’s role, optimising the operation of each artefact. This allows a wider range of artefact behaviours and so applications to be supported by a single virtual environment. Infrastructure level behaviours may implement a single infrastructure mechanism or multiple mechanisms, allowing the framework to explicitly present the complex interdependencies which can exist between infrastructure mechanisms such as persistence and consistency. In addition to providing greater run-time flexibility for continuously available persistent virtual environments, the framework allows infrastructure mechanisms to be easily developed, compared, tested and configured, making it a useful test bed for the development of future infrastructure mechanisms. After reviewing existing virtual environment systems and related systems, the thesis presents an experiment which reveals some of the problems existing with current approaches to persistence in virtual environments. The thesis then describes the framework discussed above and the issues involved in its realisation before evaluating the current prototype. Finally some conclusions are presented and future work discussed

Distribution patterns of HP1, a heterochromatin-associated nonhistone chromosomal protein of Drosophila

We have previously reported the identification of a nonhistone chromosomal protein (nhcp-19; now called HP1) preferentially associated with the heterochromatin of Drosophila melanogaster. A detailed study of the HP1 distribution pattern on polytene chromosomes by immunofluorescent staining, using monoclonal antibody C1A9, has been carried out. The results indicate that this protein is found within the centric beta-heterochromatin, in cytological regions 31, 41 and 80, and throughout polytene chromosome 4. Staining of telomeres is frequently observed, those of chromosome arms 2R and 3R and the X chromosome being the most conspicuous. Analysis of a fourth chromosome insertional translocation T(3;4)f/In(3L)P confirms an autonomous interaction with chromosome 4 material. Similarly, the beta-heterochromatin distal to light on chromosome arm 2L, moved to position 97D2 on chromosome arm 3R in the rearrangement ltx13, is prominently stained using the C1A9 antibody. Staining of intact salivary glands indicates that this rearranged segment of beta-heterochromatin is not associated with the polytene chromocenter, but provides an independent structural reference point. HP1 is not observed in the nuclei of the early syncytial embryo, but becomes concentrated in the nuclei at the syncytial blastoderm stage (ca. nuclear division cycle 10). This suggests that heterochromatin formation occurs at approximately the same stage at which nuclei first become transcriptionally competent. Thus, the C1A9 antibody may serve as a useful marker for both structural and functional studies of the Drosophila nucleus