Seigniorage in the 21st Century: A Study of the Profits from Money Creation in the United Kingdom and Denmark

This paper develops a new theory of seigniorage suited to modern economies where the majority of money is created not by the state or central bank but by commercial banks and other monetary financial institutions via their lending activity. We identify four different forms of seigniorage that take account of the modern institutional separation between the state, the central bank, commercial banks and the non-bank private sector in terms of their identities as ‘money creators’ and ‘money users’. The new typology differentiates between seigniorage profits arising from interest rate spreads on stocks of created money and profits arising from flows of interest payments on newly created assets. We illustrate our theoretical framework with empirical data on commercial bank seigniorage and related variables in the United Kingdom and the Denmark over the past quarter century

Linking ecological health to co-occurring organic and inorganic chemical stressors in a groundwater-fed stream system

Sonne AT, Rasmussen JJ, Höss S, Traunspurger W, Bjerg PL, McKnight US. Linking ecological health to co-occurring organic and inorganic chemical stressors in a groundwater-fed stream system. SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT. 2018;642:1153-1162.Freshwaters are among the most endangered ecosystems worldwide, due predominantly to excessive anthropogenic practices compromising the future provisioning of ecosystem services. Despite increased awareness of the role of multiple stressors in accounting for ecological degradation in mixed land-use stream systems, risk assessment approaches applicable in field settings are still required. This study provides a first indication for ecological consequences of the interaction of organic and inorganic chemical stressors, not typically evaluated together, which may provide a missing link enabling the reconnection of chemical and ecological findings. Specifically, impaired ecological conditions - represented by lower abundance of meiobenthic individuals - were observed in the hyporheic zone where a contaminant groundwater plume discharged to the stream. These zones were characterized by high xenobiotic organic concentrations, and strongly reduced groundwater (e.g. elevated dissolved iron and arsenic) linked to the dissolution of iron hydroxides (iron reduction) caused by the degradation of xenobiotic compounds in the plume. Further research is still needed to separate whether impact is driven by a combined effect of organic and inorganic stressors impacting the ecological communities, or whether the conditions - when present simultaneously - are responsible for enabling a specific chemical stressors availability (e.g. trace metals), and thus toxicity, along the study stream. Regardless, these findings suggest that benthic meioinvertebrates are promising indicators for supporting biological assessments of stream systems to sufficiently represent impacts resulting from the co-occurrence of stressors in different stream compartments. Importantly, identification of the governing circumstances is crucial for revealing key patterns and impact drivers that may be needed in correctly prioritizing stressor impacts in these systems. This study further highlights the importance of stream-aquifer interfaces for investigating chemical stressor effects in multiple stressor systems. This will require holistic approaches for linking contaminant hydrogeology and eco(toxico)logy in order to positively influence the sustainable management of water resources globally. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A simple contaminant fate and transport modelling tool for management and risk assessment of groundwater pollution from contaminated sites

Contaminated sites pose a significant threat to groundwater resources. The resources that can be allocated by water regulators for site investigation and cleanup are limited compared to the large number of contaminated sites. Numerical transport models of individual sites require large amounts of data and are labor intensive to set up, and thus they are likely to be too expensive to be useful in the management of thousands of contaminated sites. Therefore, simple tools based on analytical solutions of contaminant transport models are widely used to assess (at an early stage) whether a site might pose a threat to groundwater. We present a tool consisting of five different models, representing common geological settings, contaminant pathways, and transport processes. The tool employs a simplified approach for preliminary, conservative, fast and inexpensive estimation of the contamination levels of aquifers. This is useful for risk assessment applications or to select and prioritize the sites, which should be targeted for further investigation. The tool is based on steady-state semi-analytical models simulating different contaminant transport scenarios from the source to downstream groundwater, and includes both unsaturated and saturated transport processes. The models combine existing analytical solutions from the literature for vertical (from the source to the top of the aquifer) and horizontal (within the aquifer) transport. The effect of net recharge causing a downward migration and an increase of vertical dispersion and dilution of the plume is also considered. Finally, we illustrate the application of the tool for a preliminary assessment of two contaminated sites in Denmark and compare the model results with field data. The comparison shows that a first preliminary assessment with conservative, and often non-site specific parameter selection, is qualitatively consistent with broad trends in observations and provides a conservative estimate of contamination.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Serum neurofilament light chain – A potential biomarker for polyneuropathy in type 2 diabetes?

AimsTo investigate the relationship between neurofilament light chain (NfL) and the presence and severity of diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN).MethodsWe performed cross-sectional analysis of data from 178 participants of the ADDITION-Denmark cohort of people with screen-detected type 2 diabetes and 32 healthy controls. Biobank serum samples were analyzed for NfL using single-molecule array. DPN was defined by Toronto criteria for confirmed DPN. Original and axonal nerve conduction study (NCS) sum z-scores were used as indicators of the severity of DPN and peripheral nerve damage.Results39 (21.9%) participants had DPN. Serum NfL (s-NfL) was significantly higher in participants with DPN (18.8 ng/L [IQR 14.4; 27.9]) than in participants without DPN (15.4 ng/L [IQR 11.7; 20.1]). There were no unadjusted s-NfL differences between controls (17.6 ng/L [IQR 12.7; 19.8]) and participants with or without DPN. Higher original and axonal NCS sum z-scores were associated with 10% higher s-NfL (10.2 and 12.1% [95% CI’s 4.0; 16.8 and 6.6; 17.9] per 1 SD). The AUC of s-NfL for DPN was 0.63 (95% CI 0.52; 0.73).ConclusionsS-NfL is unlikely to be a reliable biomarker for the presence of DPN. S-NfL is however associated to the severity of the nerve damage underlying DPN