Regulatory Issues in Electronic Money: A Legal-Economics Analysis.

In this paper we examine regulatory issues relating to electronic money. The discussion proceeds along three main lines. Firstly, the focus of attention on the potential risks to the financial system is typically on the systemic risk arising from the payments system. Since issuers of electronic money automatically become part of the payments system, we consider if the arguments relating to systemic risk originating in the payments system apply in the case of electronic money. Secondly, we examine the sharp divergence in regulatory approaches between the US and the EU, and suggest that a useful way of reconciling this divergence is to note the existence of a tradeoff between the efficiency of the financial system and the amount of risk assumed by the public sector. This means that there is not necessarily a 'correct' answer to the question of the desirability of regulation. Thirdly, technological advances and financial innovations have made it easier for firms to engage in regulatory arbitrage. Competitive pressures may have encouraged financial centres to engage in competitive deregulation, resulting in a less than socially optimal level of regulation overall. It is therefore important that national authorities coordinate and harmonise their regulatory policies.REGULATION ; ELECTRONIC MONEY ; FINANCIAL SYSTEMS

Bogoliubov Coefficients of 2D Charged Black Holes

We exactly calculate the thermal distribution and temperature of Hawking radiation for a two-dimensional charged dilatonic black hole after it has settled down to an "equilibrium" state. The calculation is carried out using the Bogoliubov coefficients. The background of the process is furnished by a preexisting black hole and not by collapsing matter as considered by Giddings and Nelson for the case of a Schwarzschild black hole. Furthermore, the vanishing of the temperature and/or the Hawking radiation in the extremal case is obtained as a regular limit of the general case.Comment: 9 pages, 1 eps figur

Magnetization reversal and magnetic anisotropy in Co network nanostructures

The magnetization reversal and magnetic anisotropy in Co network structures have been studied using magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE). An enhancement of the coercivity is observed in the network structures and is attributed to the pinning of domain walls by the hole edges in the vicinity of which the demagnetizing field spatially varies. We find that the magnetization reversal process is dominated by the intrinsic unaxial anisotropy (2K(u)/M(s)approximate to 200 Oe) in spite of the shape anisotropy induced by the hole edges. The influence of the cross-junction on the competition between the intrinsic uniaxial anisotropy and the induced shape anisotropy is discussed using micromagnetic simulations

Lifelong learning : issues of effective implementation

Lifelong Learning is becoming more important as the median age of the world and the pace of change continues to increase. It has become part of key national development strategy to update and upgrade the knowledge of its citizen to meet the challenges of globalization. This paper reviews the goals and process of lifelong learning, which may be academic or nonacademic, pre-employment or post-employment, formal, semi-formal or informal. It then examines the deployment of modern information communication technology (ICT), and its effects of accelerating the life-long learning process. Among the modes of delivery, the authors contended that Open and Distance Learning (ODL) with blended mode of delivery is perhaps the most effective means of implementing lifelong learning. The issues of assessment and accreditation, especially the validation and recognition of informal learning remain one of the main obstacles to the implementation of lifelong learning. (Authors' abstract

The Association of Compact Groups of Galaxies with Large-scale Structures

We use various samples of compact groups (CGs) to examine the types of association CGs have with rich and poor clusters of galaxies at low (z~0.04) and intermediate (z~0.1) redshifts. We find that ~10-20 % of CGs are associated with rich clusters and a much larger fraction with poorer clusters or loose groups. Considering the incompleteness of catalogs of poorer systems at intermediate redshift, our result is consistent with all CGs at intermediate redshift being associated with larger-scale systems. The richness of the clusters associated with CGs significantly increases from z~0.04 to z~0.1, while their Bautz-Morgan type changes from early to late type for the same range in z. Neither trend is compatible with a selection effect in the cluster catalogs used. We find earlier morphological types of galaxies to be more frequent in CGs associated with larger-scale structures, compared to those in CGs not associated to such structures. We consider this as new evidence that CGs are part of the large-scale structure formation process and that they may play an important role in the evolution of galaxies in these structures.Comment: 5 pages, no figures, Proc. ESO Workshop "Groups of galaxies in the nearby Universe", Santiago, Chile, 5-9 Dec. 2005, ESO Astrophysics Symposia, eds. I. Saviane, V. Ivanov & J. Borissova, Springer-Verlag; very minor revision of text on 15 Mar 2006, added one referenc

Topological censorship for Kaluza-Klein space-times

The standard topological censorship theorems require asymptotic hypotheses which are too restrictive for several situations of interest. In this paper we prove a version of topological censorship under significantly weaker conditions, compatible e.g. with solutions with Kaluza-Klein asymptotic behavior. In particular we prove simple connectedness of the quotient of the domain of outer communications by the group of symmetries for models which are asymptotically flat, or asymptotically anti-de Sitter, in a Kaluza-Klein sense. This allows one, e.g., to define the twist potentials needed for the reduction of the field equations in uniqueness theorems. Finally, the methods used to prove the above are used to show that weakly trapped compact surfaces cannot be seen from Scri.Comment: minor correction

Contact-induced spin polarization in carbon nanotubes

Motivated by the possibility of combining spintronics with molecular structures, we investigate the conditions for the appearance of spin-polarization in low-dimensional tubular systems by contacting them to a magnetic substrate. We derive a set of general expressions describing the charge transfer between the tube and the substrate and the relative energy costs. The mean-field solution of the general expressions provides an insightful formula for the induced spin-polarization. Using a tight-binding model for the electronic structure we are able to estimate the magnitude and the stability of the induced moment. This indicates that a significant magnetic moment in carbon nanotubes can be observed.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. B (2003

Simulation of Guided Wave Propagation in Isotropic and Composite Structures using LISA

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97117/1/AIAA2012-1387.pd