Ownership of Australian Equities and Corporate Bonds

Australian financial and non-financial companies tap capital markets – particularly equity and bond markets – to source funds from households, foreign investors and domestic institutional investors. Foreign investors supply around half of these funds, with institutional investors providing most of the remainder; households’ direct holdings are comparatively modest. During the financial crisis, foreign investors’ appetite for Australian assets remained strong, underpinned by the strength of the Australian financial system and economy.Australia; equities; corporate bonds

Dreams of the Deceased: Who Has Them and Why?

The limited research on dreams of the deceased is a cause for concern for those working with bereaved persons. This research addressed four questions: 1. Why do some bereaved individuals dream of the deceased while others do not? 2. Why are some dreams of the deceased a positive experience, while others are negative? 3. Are dreams of the deceased a form of continuing bond? 4. Are continuing bonds helpful for grief recovery? Four studies were conducted. In one, participants were 268 U.S. residents who had a romantic partner or spouse die in the prior 12 to 24 months. The second study had 199 U.S. residents whose dog or cat had died in the prior six months. The third study had 226 U.S. residents who experienced a stillbirth or miscarriage in the prior year. The fourth study had 218 participants, mostly U.S. residents, who had a romantic partner or spouse die in the prior 6 to 24 months. Participants completed all questionnaires online. Study 1 and 2 focused primarily on the issue of predicting the frequency of dreams of the deceased and found that frequency of general dream recall (all dreams, not just dreams of the deceased) was the primary predictor. In addition, grief intensity, openness to experience, and attachment security all showed indirect effects. All four studies, but especially studies 2 through 4, addressed the questions about the quality of dream experience, the relation of dreams of the deceased to continuing bonds, and the adaptiveness of continuing bonds. In general the findings from all four studies, but especially study 4, support the idea that there are multiple types of continuing bonds with differing impacts on grief recovery, and there are differing forms of dreams of the deceased, not all of which represent continuing bonds

Development of a Biosensor for Investigating Membrane Curvature Sorting

The physical structure of cellular membranes plays a critical role in lipid and protein sorting. A novel biosensor was developed to probe the influence of curvature on sorting. This biosensor mimics large, two-dimensional membranes in dynamic equilibrium, achieves high spatial resolution between curvature and molecules of interest, and has high sensitivity, enough for single particle detection. The biosensor consists of continuous supported lipid bilayer formed over nanoparticles (40 to 200 nm diameter) deposited on a glass substrate. The nanoparticles determine the extent of curvature. This biosensor is the first to observe large-scale 2-dimensional diffusion of biomolecules on a supported lipid bilayer with small radii of curvature in equilibrium with flat areas of fluid bilayer. This will allow correlation between protein function and the physical shape of a membrane. Fluorescence microscopy was used to quantify spatial sorting of lipids and a protein relevant to cardiovascular disease, C-reactive protein (CRP). Two lipids, fluorescein labeled hexadecanoic acid and 1,2-dihexadecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine, sense curvature by accumulating in areas over nanoparticles, and both are able to laterally exchange with surrounding lipids. Dynamic fluidity of the bilayer was assessed using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. Lipids directly at sites of curvature recover more slowly than lipids over flat sections. The spatial distribution of CRP was also assessed. Curvature sensing of CRP is isoform dependent where native CRP does not sense curvature and modified CRP does sense curvature. Finally, we show that a ribonucleic acid aptamer will bind specifically to modified CRP and not native CRP, enabling isoform specific studies of CRP to be conducted

Peirce on Habit, Practice, and Theory: The Priority of Practice and the Autonomy of Theory

Charles Peirce’s thought on the relationship between theory and practice has two seemingly inconsistent thrusts. On one hand, Peirce draws theory and practice together. He understands theory as a particular form of practical interaction with the world. On the other hand, he pulls them apart. He seems to insist that theoretical inquiry is not to affect, or be affected by, our other practices. This thesis uses Peirce’s habit-based account of human activity to show that the two sides of his thought are not inconsistent. Rather, Peirce’s apparent division of theory from practice is a consequence of his understanding of theory as a practice. Peirce often appeals to a habit-based account of human activity. However, this account is not developed in detail in any one text. The first task of this thesis is to gather together Peirce’s remarks on habit and human activity into a single coherent picture. According to this picture, we are made up of a body of habits which is constantly developing as we interact with the world. This body of habits is only partially subject to self-control, but we use this small window to direct ourselves towards our purposes. That in our body of habits which is subject to control is called the ‘foreground’ and that which is not is called the ‘background’. Agents are said to be ‘in harmony’ with their environment when their habits al- low them to achieve their purposes. In the course of articulating this picture points of critical contact with recent philosophy of action are noted. The second task of this thesis is to show that Peirce understands theoretical inquiry on this model. Theoretical inquiry is the practice directed to the discovery of truth, where truth is understood as ultimate harmony between beliefs (a kind of habit) and the world. It depends on a background of mostly-instinctive habits, including a collection of indubitable common-sense beliefs, and an attunement with the world that enables us to generate explanatory hypotheses. The third task is to show that Peirce’s division of theory from our other practices is a consequence of his understanding of the special character of truth. According to Peirce the discovery of truth is a ‘long-run’ goal, which demands very different treatment from the ‘short-run’ goals of our other practices. To allow the needs of other practices to interfere in theoretical inquiry would be to take us off the path of truth. On the other hand, to allow theoretical results and reasoning to directly control our other practices would be to substitute reliable instinct for highly fallible reason. In sum, Peirce insists on the autonomy of theory and practice from one another

Emerald Lawns: Employee Manual

This paper will go through the process of creating an employee manual for my current company. I will touch on each aspect that guided me to the manual that I wrote and what I feel deserved to be in it. The manual was a culmination of different ideas from my boss and other employees with long years in the industry

Inference of epidemiological parameters from household stratified data

We consider a continuous-time Markov chain model of SIR disease dynamics with two levels of mixing. For this so-called stochastic households model, we provide two methods for inferring the model parameters---governing within-household transmission, recovery, and between-household transmission---from data of the day upon which each individual became infectious and the household in which each infection occurred, as would be available from first few hundred studies. Each method is a form of Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo that allows us to calculate a joint posterior distribution for all parameters and hence the household reproduction number and the early growth rate of the epidemic. The first method performs exact Bayesian inference using a standard data-augmentation approach; the second performs approximate Bayesian inference based on a likelihood approximation derived from branching processes. These methods are compared for computational efficiency and posteriors from each are compared. The branching process is shown to be an excellent approximation and remains computationally efficient as the amount of data is increased

Statistical analysis of activation and reaction energies with quasi-variational coupled-cluster theory

The performance of quasi-variational coupled-cluster (QV) theory applied to the calculation of activation and reaction energies has been investigated. A statistical analysis of results obtained for six different sets of reactions has been carried out, and the results have been compared to those from standard single-reference methods. In general, the QV methods lead to increased activation energies and larger absolute reaction energies compared to those obtained with traditional coupled-cluster theory

Food without sun: Price and life-saving potential

International audienceThe sun could be blocked by an asteroid impact, supervolcanic eruption, or nuclear winter caused by burning of cities during nuclear war. The primary problem in these scenarios is loss of food production. Previous work has shown that alternate foods not dependent on sunlight, such as bacteria grown on natural gas, calories extracted from killed leaves, and cellulose turned into sugar enzymatically, could feed everyone in these catastrophes and preparation for these foods would save lives highly cost-effectively. This study estimates the price of alternate foods during a catastrophe scenario with global trade and information sharing, but no migration, loans, aid or conflict. Without alternate foods, for a five year winter, only ~10% of the population would survive. The price of dry food would rise to ~$100/kg, and the expenditure on this food would be ~$100 trillion over five years. If alternate food were $8/kg, the surviving global population increases to ~70%, saving >4 billion lives. The probability of a loss of civilization and its impact on many future generations would be much lower in this scenario and the total expenditure on food would be halved. Preparation for alternate foods would be a good investment even for wealthy people who would survive without alternate foods. A non-governmental mechanism of coordinating the investments of these rich people may be possible. Identifying companies whose interests align with alternate food preparations may save lives at a negative cost

Peirce's Conception of Metaphysics

This thesis develops and defends a Peircean conception of the task of metaphysics and critically compares it with recent anti-metaphysical forms of pragmatism. Peirce characterises metaphysics in terms of its place within his hierarchical classification of the sciences. According to the classification, metaphysics depends on logic for principles and provides principles to the natural and social sciences. This arrangement of the sciences is defended by appeal to Peirce's account of philosophy as 'cenoscopy'. The dependence of the natural and social sciences on cenoscopy is then argued for on the basis of Peirce's rejection of psychologism and in terms of the necessity of abductive inference. Peirce's position is then compared with recent forms of pragmatism. While it is less naturalistic, Peirce's position is defended on pragmatist grounds. An account of Peirce on truth is then developed. Peirce's account of truth in terms of an ideal limit of inquiry is defended as consistent with recent, more deflationary, approaches. The truth of 'abstract propositions' is a matter of local indefeasibility. These abstract propositions are related to the 'absolute truth', understood as a single non-abstract proposition. The truth of this proposition is then understood in terms of an identity theory. Two conceptions of Peircean metaphysics are presented. Both are 'abductive'. Their task is to explain the possibility of success in inquiry. However, only one proposal accepts the notion of an absolute truth. The 'absolutist' proposal is defended as an interpretation of Peirce and as a contemporary option for pragmatist philosophers. The thesis concludes by comparing recent anti-metaphysical arguments due to Huw Price with the Peircean position. Room for the absolutist proposal is defended by means of an account of recent exchanges between Price and Robert Brandom on dispositional modality

Using principal component analysis to explore co-variation of vowels

This paper presents a methodology for exploring systematic co-variation of vowels using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). As a case study, we examine and build on Brand et al.'s (2021) study of systematic co-variation amongst the monophthongs of New Zealand English (NZE) across speakers born over a 118-year time period. We present PCA as a methodology, with information aimed at readers who may themselves want to use it in a related context. We consider tests for the appropriateness of PCA, how to select Principal Components, and how to interpret them once they have been found. At each stage, we provide code in the R programing language to enable readers to both follow our analysis and apply the same methods to their own data.</p