23,752 research outputs found
How Banks Construct and Manage Risk: A Sociological Study of Small Firm Lending in Britain and Germany
This paper analyses the role of banks in financing SMEs in Britain and Germany. It applies a sociological institutionalist approach to understand how banks construct and manage risk, relating to SME business. The empirical analysis is based on the results of a comparative survey of a sample of British and German banks and also refers to statistical material produced by the banks themselves. The paper concludes that, even though bank- firm relations are still deeply embedded in national institutional frameworks, some tendencies towards convergence can also be observed, particularly among commercial banks from the two countries. These flow from both internationalisation and from the political influence of the EU.Bank Lending; SMEs; Britain; Germany
Vacuum Alignment in Technicolor Theories-I. The Technifermion Sector
We have carried out numerical studies of vacuum alignment in technicolor
models of electroweak and flavor symmetry breaking. The goal is to understand
alignment's implications for strong and weak CP nonconservation in quark
interactions. In this first part, we restrict our attention to the
technifermion sector of simple models. We find several interesting phenomena,
including (1) the possibility that all observable phases in the technifermions'
unitary vacuum-alignment matrix are integer multiples of \pi/N' where N' \le N,
the number of technifermion doublets, and (2) the possibility of exceptionally
light pseudoGoldstone technipions.Comment: 19 pages, Latex with one postscript figur
Optical constants of uranium plasma Final report
Thermodynamic and optical properties of uranium plasma in proposed gaseous core nuclear rocket
Entropic Origin of Pseudogap Physics and a Mott-Slater Transition in Cuprates
We propose a new approach to understand the origin of the pseudogap in the
cuprates, in terms of bosonic entropy. The near-simultaneous softening of a
large number of different -bosons yields an extended range of short-range
order, wherein the growth of magnetic correlations with decreasing temperature
is anomalously slow. These entropic effects cause the spectral weight
associated with the Van Hove singularity (VHS) to shift rapidly and nearly
linearly toward half filling at higher , consistent with a picture of the
VHS driving the pseudogap transition at a temperature . As a
byproduct, we develop an order-parameter classification scheme that predicts
supertransitions between families of order parameters. As one example, we find
that by tuning the hopping parameters, it is possible to drive the cuprates
across a {\it transition between Mott and Slater physics}, where a
spin-frustrated state emerges at the crossover.Comment: 24 pgs, 15 figs + Supp. Material [6pgs, 3 figs]. Major revision of
arXiv:1505.0477
Efficient Simulation of Quantum State Reduction
The energy-based stochastic extension of the Schrodinger equation is a rather
special nonlinear stochastic differential equation on Hilbert space, involving
a single free parameter, that has been shown to be very useful for modelling
the phenomenon of quantum state reduction. Here we construct a general closed
form solution to this equation, for any given initial condition, in terms of a
random variable representing the terminal value of the energy and an
independent Brownian motion. The solution is essentially algebraic in
character, involving no integration, and is thus suitable as a basis for
efficient simulation studies of state reduction in complex systems.Comment: 4 pages, No Figur
What impact did a Paediatric Early Warning system have on emergency admissions to the paediatric intensive care unit? An observational cohort study
Summary
The ideology underpinning Paediatric Early Warning systems (PEWs) is that earlier recognition of deteriorating in-patients would improve clinical outcomes.
Objective
To explore how the introduction of PEWs at a tertiary children's hospital affects emergency admissions to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and the impact on service delivery. To compare âin-houseâ emergency admissions to PICU with âexternalâ admissions transferred from District General Hospitals (without PEWs).
Method
A before-and-after observational study August 2005âJuly 2006 (pre), August 2006âJuly 2007 (post) implementation of PEWs at the tertiary children's hospital.
Results
The median Paediatric Index of Mortality (PIM2) reduced; 0.44 vs 0.60 (p < 0.001). Fewer admissions required invasive ventilation 62.7% vs 75.2% (p = 0.015) for a shorter median duration; four to two days. The median length of PICU stay reduced; five to three days (p = 0.002). There was a non-significant reduction in mortality (p = 0.47). There was no comparable improvement in outcome seen in external emergency admissions to PICU. A 39% reduction in emergency admission total beds days reduced cancellation of major elective surgical cases and refusal of external PICU referrals.
Conclusions
Following introduction of PEWs at a tertiary children's hospital PIM2 was reduced, patients required less PICU interventions and had a shorter length of stay. PICU service delivery improved
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Neural precursor cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells exhibit reduced susceptibility to infection with a neurotropic coronavirus.
The present study examines the susceptibility of mouse induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural precursor cells (iPSC-NPCs) to infection with the neurotropic JHM strain of mouse hepatitis virus (JHMV). Similar to NPCs derived from striatum of day 1 postnatal GFP-transgenic mice (GFP-NPCs), iPSC-derived NPCs (iPSC-NPCs) are able to differentiate into terminal neural cell types and express MHC class I and II in response to IFN-Îł treatment. However, in contrast to postnatally-derived NPCs, iPSC-NPCs express low levels of carcinoembryonic antigen-cell adhesion molecule 1a (CEACAM1a), the surface receptor for JHMV, and are less susceptible to infection and virus-induced cytopathic effects. The relevance of this in terms of therapeutic application of NPCs resistant to viral infection is discussed
Pseudo-Goldstone Boson Effects in Top-Antitop Productions at High Energy Hadron Colliders and Testing Technicolor Models
We study the top quark pair production process p+p(anti-p)-->top+antitop in
various kinds of technicolor (TC) models at the Fermilab Tevatron Run II and
the CERN LHC. The s-channel neutral pseudo-Goldstone bosons (PGB's) contribute
dominately to the production amplitudes from its coupling to the gluons through
the triangle loops of techniquarks and the top quark. Cross sections in
different TC models with s-channel PGB contributions are calculated. It is
shown that the PGB effects can be experimentally tested and different TC models
under consideration can be distinguished at the LHC. Therefore, the
p+p-->top+antitop process at the LHC provides feasible tests of the TC models.Comment: 10 pages in RevTex and 4 PS-files for the figures. Paramemter range
is changed, and some references are added. Version for publication in Phys.
Rev.
High-resolution observation of the Venus dayglow spectrum 1250-1430 angstroms
The spectrum of the dayglow of Venus between 1250 and 1430 A was measured in high resolution with the International Ultraviolet Explorer. Seven exposures which were made with the short wavelength camera in the high dispersion mode using the large aperture were combined to give a total exposure time of 309 min. The atomic oxygen lines at 1302.2, 1304.9, 1306.0, and 1355.6 A are present. In addition, the (14,3) and (14,4) bands of the carbon monoxide fourth positive system at 1317 and 1354 A respectively are identified. These bands are compared with synthetic spectra, showing the excitation mechanism to be fluorescent scattering of solar Lyman alpha radiation
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