The Federal Reserve's Primary Dealer Credit Facility

As liquidity conditions in the "repo market"--the market where broker-dealers obtain financing for their securities--deteriorated following the near-bankruptcy of Bear Stearns in March 2008, the Federal Reserve took the step of creating a special facility to provide overnight loans to dealers that have a trading relationship with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Six months later, in the wake of new strains in the repo market, the Fed expanded the facility by broadening the types of collateral accepted for loans. Both initiatives were designed to help restore the orderly functioning of the market and to prevent the spillover of distress to other financial firms.Federal Reserve Bank of New York ; Loans ; Financial crises ; Brokers

Factors Affecting Yield and Quality of Oats.

End of Project ReportQuality evaluation of oats relies primarily on hectolitre weight and, while it is an important characteristic, work carried out at Oak Park and elsewhere has shown that it does not accurately measure grain quality. Consequently, the selection of oat lots and varieties which have a high milling value has been limited, as present techniques fail to accurately determine the characteristics most closely related to milling quality. In this regard the kernel content and the ease of husk removal, termed the hullability, are the most important. This study has developed a new test for assessing oat kernel content, which is more rapid and cheaper than techniques currently available. Despite its obvious importance, oat hullability has not been assessed to date in quality evaluation due to the absence of a test procedure. However, this obstacle has now been overcome. The results of this work also provide a much better understanding of how hullability of individual varieties can be assessed, as well as investigating how this could be manipulated at field level. Using the methods developed, the selection of varieties with enhanced processing characteristics can now be carried out more precisely for Irish conditions. The field trials conducted to evaluate the effect of agronomic practices on quality indicated that the effect of factors such as nitrogen rate and seed rate was small in comparison to variety, which had the largest and most consistent effect. The variation in quality could not be completely explained by variation in the panicle characteristics studied. Increasing the nitrogen rate increased yield with the optimum being 160 kg N/ha in 1998 and 1999. However, lodging became a very significant factor at nitrogen rates above 100 kg N/ha in 1998, although it did not occur in 1999. This work supports the current Teagasc nitrogen recommendations for oats where levels of 110-140 kg N/ha (Soil Index 1) are advised

Potential uses of health promotion competencies

Projects in Australia and internationally over the past two decades have sought to define and clarify competencies required to work in health promotion. It is now apparent that such competencies are very useful to health promotion practice. However, to date little attempt has been made to describe those uses.More than 200 health promotion practitioners throughout Australia were engaged in workshops to explore and define potential uses of health promotion competencies. The suggestions from these 10 workshops are summarised in eight categories of uses.Agreed health promotion competencies have potential to impact on recruitment, training, employment policy and health promotion practice

Leukotriene B4 stimulates the release of arachidonate in human neutrophils via the action of cytosolic phospholipase A2

AbstractLeukotriene B4 (LTB4) is a potent lipid mediator of inflammation and is involved in the receptor-mediated activation of a number of leukocyte responses including degranulation, superoxide formation, and chemotaxis. In the present research, stimulation of unprimed polymorphonuclear leukocytes (neutrophils) with LTB4 results in the transient release of arachidonate as measured by mass. This release of arachidonate was maximal at an LTB4 concentration of 50–75 nM and peaked at 45 s after stimulation with LTB4. The transient nature of this release can be attributed, in part, to a fast (<60 s) metabolism of the added LTB4. Moreover, the inhibition of the reacylation of the released arachidonate with thimerosal results in greater than 4-times as much arachidonate released. Thus, a rapid reacylation of the released arachidonate also contributes to the transient nature of its measured release. Multiple additions of LTB4, which would be expected to more closely resemble the situation in vivo where the cell may come into contact with an environment where LTB4 is in near constant supply, yielded a more sustained release of arachidonate. No release of [3H]arachidonate was observed when using [3H]arachidonate-labeled cells. This indicates that the release of arachidonate as measured by mass is most probably the result of hydrolysis of arachidonate-containing phosphatidylethanolamine within the cell since the radiolabeled arachidonate is almost exclusively incorporated into phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylinositol pools under the non-equilibrium radiolabeling conditions used. Consistent with the role of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) in the release of arachidonate, potent inhibition of the LTB4-stimulated release was observed with methylarachidonylfluorophosphonate, an inhibitor of cPLA2 (IC50 of 1 μM). The bromoenol lactone of the calcium-independent phosphospholipase A2. failed to affect LTB4-stimulated release of arachidonate in these cells

Local variations in spatial synchrony of influenza epidemics

Background: Understanding the mechanism of influenza spread across multiple geographic scales is not complete. While the mechanism of dissemination across regions and states of the United States has been described, understanding the determinants of dissemination between counties has not been elucidated. The paucity of high resolution spatial-temporal influenza incidence data to evaluate disease structure is often not available. Methodology and Findings: We report on the underlying relationship between the spread of influenza and human movement between counties of one state. Significant synchrony in the timing of epidemics exists across the entire state and decay with distance (regional correlation = 62%). Synchrony as a function of population size display evidence of hierarchical spread with more synchronized epidemics occurring among the most populated counties. A gravity model describing movement between two populations is a stronger predictor of influenza spread than adult movement to and from workplaces suggesting that non-routine and leisure travel drive local epidemics. Conclusions: These findings highlight the complex nature of influenza spread across multiple geographic scales. © 2012 Stark et al

Core health promotion competencies for Australia 2007

Four hundred health promotion practitioners throughout Australian completed an on-line survey on Health Promotion Competencies for Australia at the end of 2005. This was followed by a series of workshops throughout Australia in 2006 to identify practical uses of the competencies and to determine a set of core competencies of health promotion practice in Australia. Many of the participants requested information about the results of the study. This brief report has been produced to describe the process and the final result. In addition more detailed accounts are contained in two articles that are being prepared for publication

Real Time Fatigue Damage Growth Assessment of a Composite Three-Stringer Panel Using Passive Thermography

Fatigue testing of advanced composite structures is critical to validate both structural designs and damage prediction models. In-situ inspection methods are necessary to track damage onset and growth as a function of load cycles. Passive thermography is a large area, noncontact inspection technique that is used to detect composite damage onset and growth in real time as a function of fatigue cycles. The thermal images are acquired in synchronicity to the applied compressive load using a dual infrared camera acquisition system for full (front and back) coverage. Image processing algorithms are investigated to increase defect contrast areas. The thermal results are compared to non-immersion ultrasound inspections and acoustic emission data