Emerging Financial Markets and Early U.S. Growth

Studies of early U.S. growth traditionally have emphasized real-sector explanations for an acceleration that by many accounts became detectable between 1815 and 1840. Interestingly, the establishment of the nation's basic financial structure predated by three decades the canals, railroads, and widespread use of water and steam-powered machinery that are thought to have triggered modernization. We argue that this innovative and expanding financial system, by providing debt and equity financing to businesses and governments as new technologies emerged, was central to the nation's early growth and modernization. The analysis includes a set of multivariate time series models that relate measures of banking and equity market activity to measures of investment, imports and business incorporations from 1790 to 1850. The findings offer support for our hypothesis of finance-led' growth in the U.S. case. By implication, the interest today in improving financial systems as a means of fostering sustainable growth is not misplaced.

Emerging Financial Markets and Early U.S. Growth

Studies of early U.S. growth traditionally have emphasized real-sector explanations for an acceleration that by many accounts became detectable between 1815 and 1840. Interestingly, the establishment of the nation's basic financial structure predated by three decades the canals, railroads, and widespread use of water and steam-powered machinery that are thought to have triggered modernization. We argue that this innovative and expanding financial system, by providing debt and equity financing to businesses and governments as new technologies emerged, was central to the nation's early growth and modernization. The analysis includes a set of multivariate time series models that relate measures of banking and equity market activity to measures of investment, imports and business incorporations from 1790 to 1850. The findings offer support for our hypothesis of "finance-led" growth in the U.S. case. By implication, the interest today in improving financial systems as a means of fostering sustainable growth is not misplaced.

Financial Systems, Economic Growth, and Globalization

This paper brings together two strands of the economic literature -- that on the finance-growth nexus and that on capital market integration -- and explores key issues surrounding each strand through both institutional/country histories and formal quantitative analysis. We begin with studies of the Dutch Republic, England, the U.S., France, Germany and Japan that span three centuries, detailing how in each case the emergence of a financial system jump-started economic growth. Using a cross-country panel of seventeen countries covering the 1850-1997 period, we then uncover a robust correlation between financial factors and economic growth that is consistent with a leading role for finance, and show that these effects were strongest over the 80 years preceding the Great Depression. Next, we show that countries with more sophisticated financial systems engage in more trade and appear to be better integrated with other economies by identifying roles for both finance and trade in the convergence of interest rates that occurred among the Atlantic economies prior to 1914. Our results suggest that the growth and increasing globalization of these economies might indeed have been 'finance-led.'

Dewetting During Crystal Growth of (Cd,Zn)Te:In under Microgravity

The phenomenon of "Dewetting" during crystal growth has been observed in several microgravity experiments for different semiconductor crystals. The results of these experiments showed an improvement of the material quality due to the contact-less growth of the crystals. A number of crystal growth techniques have been used to grow CZT. The most widely used is the growth from the melt by the Bridgman method. However the crucible, which is generally made of carbon-layered silica glass, causes a number of problems: solid-liquid interface curvature, spurious nucleation of grains and twins, thermal stresses during the cooling of the crystal. This work is concentrated on the growth of high resistivity (Cd,Zn)Te:In (CZT) crystals by using the phenomenon of dewetting and its application in the processing of CZT detectors. Two Cd0.9Zn0.1Te:In crystals were grown under microgravity on the Russian FOTON satellite in the Polizon facility in September 2007. One crystal was grown under a rotating magnetic field during the phase of homogenization to destroy the typical tellurium clusters in the melt. The other crystal was superheated with 20 K above the melting point. A third crystal has been grown on the ground in similar thermal conditions. Inspection of the surface of the space grown crystals gave the evidence of successful dewetting during the crystal growth. The influence of the dewetting on the material properties is shown by the results of optical and electrical characterization methods. Finally, CZT detectors have been processed from the grown part of the different crystals. The influence of dewetting on their performance will be studied by means of the detector measurements with X- and Gamma-ray sources

Persistence of magnetic field driven by relativistic electrons in a plasma

The onset and evolution of magnetic fields in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas is determined by several mechanisms, including instabilities, dynamo effects and ultra-high energy particle flows through gas, plasma and interstellar-media. These processes are relevant over a wide range of conditions, from cosmic ray acceleration and gamma ray bursts to nuclear fusion in stars. The disparate temporal and spatial scales where each operates can be reconciled by scaling parameters that enable to recreate astrophysical conditions in the laboratory. Here we unveil a new mechanism by which the flow of ultra-energetic particles can strongly magnetize the boundary between the plasma and the non-ionized gas to magnetic fields up to 10-100 Tesla (micro Tesla in astrophysical conditions). The physics is observed from the first time-resolved large scale magnetic field measurements obtained in a laser wakefield accelerator. Particle-in-cell simulations capturing the global plasma and field dynamics over the full plasma length confirm the experimental measurements. These results open new paths for the exploration and modelling of ultra high energy particle driven magnetic field generation in the laboratory

New approaches in order to enlarge the grain size of bulk CdZnTe (CZT) crystals

For the few decades, II-VI compound semiconductors are gaining attention because of its numerous applications in the field of detector technology, photovoltaic, nuclear medicine, astronomy etc. In the recent past, materials scientists focused their attention for the growth of CdTe/CdZnTe single crystals because it doesn\u27t require any specialized cooling and detects higher energy photos as in comparison with the existing Ge, Si and Hgl(2) detectors. In the present study, we are going to discuss five main approaches in order to get good quality CZT crystal and we have successfully grown the CZT crystal by adopting these approaches. They are: i) oscillatory Bridgman technique previous to the growth process, ii) modifying the thermal environments in a Bridgman geometry using a Pt tube as a cold finger in order to reduce the growth velocity iii) growth from the vapour phase using Bridgman geometry with a pyrolitic boron nitride (PBN) crucible to locate the feed material, and with a special temperature profile, iv) microgravity experiments in the FOTON M3 mission using magnetic field prior to the growth process and v) growth by a boron oxide encapsulation. The detailed discussions are given in the following sections

Impact of environmental moisture on C(3)A polymorphs in the absence and presence of CaSO4 center dot 0.5 H2O

The phenomenon of water vapour sorption by anhydrous C3A polymorphs both in the absence and in the presence of CaSO4·0·5 H2O was studied utilising dynamic and static sorption methods. It was found that orthorhombic C3A starts to sorb water at 55% relative humidity (RH) and cubic C3A at 80% RH. Also, C3Ao sorbs a higher amount of water which is predominantly physically bound, whereas C3Ac preferentially interacts with water by chemical reaction. In the presence of calcium sulfate hemihydrate, ettringite was observed as the predominant pre-hydration product for both C3A modifications: that is, ion transport had occurred between C3A and sulfate. Environmental scanning electron microscopic imaging revealed that in a moist atmosphere, a liquid water film condenses on the surface of the phases as a consequence of capillary condensation between the particles. C3A and sulfate can then dissolve and react with each other. Seemingly, pre-hydration is mainly facilitated through capillary condensation and less through surface interaction with gaseous water molecules

Efficacy and tolerability of a new formulation of artesunate-mefloquine for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in adult in Senegal: open randomized trial

BACKGROUND: Prompt treatment of malaria attacks with arteminisin-based combination therapy (ACT) is an essential tool for malaria control. A new co-blister tablet of artesunate-mefloquine (AM) with 25 mg/kg mefloquine has been developed for the management of uncomplicated malaria attacks. This non-inferiority randomized trial, was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the new formulation of AM in comparison to artemether-lumefantrine (AL) for the treatment of acute uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in adults in Senegal. METHODS: The study was carried out from September to December 2010 in two health centres in Senegal. The study end points included (i) PCR corrected adequate clinical and parasitological response (ACPR) at day 28, (ii) ACPR at days 42 and 63, (iii) parasites and fever clearance time, (iv) incidence of adverse events and patients biological profile at day 7 using the WHO 2003 protocol for anti-malarial drug evaluation. RESULTS: Overall, 310 patients were randomized to receive either AM (n = 157) or AL (n = 153). PCR corrected ACPR at day 28 was at 95.5% in the AM arm while that in the AL arm was at 96.7% (p = 0.83). Therapeutic efficacy was at 98.5% in the AM arm versus 98.2% in the AL group at day 42 (p = 1). At day 63, ACPR in the AM and AL arms was at 98.2% and 97.7%, respectively (p = 0.32). The two treatments were well tolerated with similar biological profile at day 7. However, dizziness was more frequent in the AM arm. CONCLUSION: Artesunate-mefloquine (25 mg/Kg mefloquine) is efficacious and well-tolerated for the treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in adult patients

Wordwide patterns of genetic differentiation imply multiple ‘domestications’of Aedes aegypti, a major vector of human diseases

Understanding the processes by which species colonize and adapt to human habitats is particularly important in the case of disease-vectoring arthropods. The mosquito species Aedes aegypti, a major vector of dengue and yellow fever viruses, probably originated as a wild, zoophilic species in sub-Saharan Africa, where some populations still breed in tree holes in forested habitats. Many populations of the species, however, have evolved to thrive in human habitats and to bite humans. This includes some populations within Africa as well as almost all those outside Africa. It is not clear whether all domestic populations are genetically related and represent a single ‘domestication’ event, or whether association with human habitats has developed multiple times independently within the species. To test the hypotheses above, we screened 24 worldwide population samples of Ae. aegypti at 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci. We identified two distinct genetic clusters: one included all domestic populations outside of Africa and the other included both domestic and forest populations within Africa. This suggests that human association in Africa occurred independently from that in domestic populations across the rest of the world. Additionally, measures of genetic diversity support Ae. aegypti in Africa as the ancestral form of the species. Individuals from domestic populations outside Africa can reliably be assigned back to their population of origin, which will help determine the origins of new introductions of Ae. aegypti