Are consumers cashing out?

The information age has led to many new forms of payment, including credit cards, debit cards, and online banking. In many ways, these new mechanisms seem preferable to cash. While the disappearance of cash is a very long way off, it seems people are starting to use it less.Cash transactions ; Payment systems ; Consumer behavior

Making financial markets safer for consumers: lessons from consumer goods markets and beyond

In the wake of the mortgage meltdown, policymakers are discussing how best to protect consumers in financial product markets.Consumer protection ; Financial markets

Two cheers for the Monetary Control Act

This article explains how the Monetary Control Act (MCA) of 1980 paved the way for the transition away from paper to electronic check clearing and processing, ultimately leading to the successful implementation of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (Check 21) in 2003.Monetary policy ; Monetary policy - United States

Multinode reconfigurable pipeline computer

A multinode parallel-processing computer is made up of a plurality of innerconnected, large capacity nodes each including a reconfigurable pipeline of functional units such as Integer Arithmetic Logic Processors, Floating Point Arithmetic Processors, Special Purpose Processors, etc. The reconfigurable pipeline of each node is connected to a multiplane memory by a Memory-ALU switch NETwork (MASNET). The reconfigurable pipeline includes three (3) basic substructures formed from functional units which have been found to be sufficient to perform the bulk of all calculations. The MASNET controls the flow of signals from the memory planes to the reconfigurable pipeline and vice versa. the nodes are connectable together by an internode data router (hyperspace router) so as to form a hypercube configuration. The capability of the nodes to conditionally configure the pipeline at each tick of the clock, without requiring a pipeline flush, permits many powerful algorithms to be implemented directly

The Coming Age of Parallel-Processing Supercomputer

It is anticipated that the needs of scientific computation will dramatically outpace the performance of general-purpose supercomputers over the next decade. These needs will, however, be addressed by an emerging class of parallelprocessing supercomputers (PPS). The Princeton University Navier-Stokes Computer (NSC) is a PPS geared toward simulating complex flows. It has a projected speed and capacity two orders of magnitude beyond that of current supercomputers. The architecture of the NSC and a discussion of a working prototype is presented

Atomic Resonance and Scattering

Contains research objectives, summary of research and reports on four research projects.Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force) under Contract DAAB07-71-C-0300National Science Foundation (Grant GP-28679)National Bureau of Standards (Grant NBS2-9011)U. S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F44620-72-C-0057

Atomic Resonance and Scattering

Contains reports on four research projects.U. S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Contract F44620-72-C-0057)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAB07-74-C-0630

Atomic Resonance and Scattering

Contains reports one three research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAB07-75-C-1346

Atomic Resonance and Scattering

Contains research objectives and summary of research on eight research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant PHY75-15421-A01)U. S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Grant AFOSR 76-2972)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAB07-76-C-1400)U. S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F44620-72-C-0057

Specific microbiota direct the differentiation of Th17 cells in the mucosa of the small intestine

IL-17-producing T-helper cells (Th17) are potent effectors of inflammation, but little is known about the requirements for their differentiation in vivo at steady state. We found that specific commensal microbiota are required for Th17 cell differentiation in the lamina propria (LP) of the small intestine. Differentiation of Th17 cells correlated with presence of Cytophaga-Flavobacter-Bacteroidetes bacteria in the intestine, was independent of TLR, IL-21 or IL-23 signaling, but required appropriate activation of TGF-β. Absence of Th17 cell-inducing bacteria was accompanied by increased Foxp3+ regulatory T cells in the LP. Our results suggest that the composition of the microbiota regulates the Th17:Treg balance in the lamina propria and may thus influence intestinal immunity, tolerance, and susceptibility to inflammatory bowel diseases