Sticky prices: a new monetarist approach

Why do some sellers set nominal prices that apparently do not respond to changes in the aggregate price level? In many models, prices are sticky by assumption; here it is a result. We use search theory, with two consequences: prices are set in dollars, since money is the medium of exchange; and equilibrium implies a nondegenerate price distribution. When the money supply increases, some sellers may keep prices constant, earning less per unit but making it up on volume, so profit stays constant. The calibrated model matches price-change data well. But, in contrast with other sticky-price models, money is neutral.

Interpreting the visual dynamics of religious manuscripts in England, 1260-1500

In this thesis, I contend that the visual dynamics of religious manuscripts produced in England (1260-1500) had fundamental importance in shaping the cognitive and conceptual responses of readers who were not literate in Latin. I begin by establishing the primacy of Latin paraliturgical materials, used for teaching beginning readers the preliminary skills needed to recite Latin prayers. In Books of Hours, all the visual components of the page combined to inculcate a distinctive mode of reading, close to monastic lectio, which was to influence Middle English devotional writing. In my second chapter, I demonstrate that thirteenth-century pastoral writings such as the Manuel des Péchés placed readers in intimate contact with modes of reading translated from the Latin, and that this mode of reading endured in popularity into the fifteenth century. My third chapter considers the translation of the French of England of the Manuel into Middle English as Handlyng Synne, and the transmission of that Middle English text in late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century manuscripts. Handlyng Synne repositions the French of England as a language exclusive to ‘clerkes,’ and this repositioning creates a space in which Latin becomes almost vernacularised. In the visual dynamics of the Handlyng Synne manuscripts, we see evidence of readers who were competent to interpret Latin submerged in Middle English. In Nicholas Love’s Mirror, paraliturgical Latin again comes to the fore, in visual dynamics that construct a space for Middle English readers on the margins of Latin textual culture. In my final chapter, I look at the late-medieval manuscripts of the romance Robert of Sicily, finding in them complex interactions between languages, which shed light on the text’s central exploration of the process of translation and of the positions of Latin and Middle English. I conclude that, despite medieval writers’ rhetorical distinction of the three main languages of medieval England from one another, Latin models of reading were transmitted from paraliturgical contexts, from texts written in the French of England, into Middle English manuscripts, whose visual contents are constantly in contact with Latin

Stoichiometric and catalytic Si-N bond formation using the p-block base Al(NMe2)3.

The aluminium amide Al(NMe2)3 acts as a stoichiometric or catalytic reagent in dehydrogenic Si-N bond formation using amines and silanes. Although of limited substrate scope, this represents the first p-block metal catalytic system for N-H/Si-H dehydrocoupling. The observed catalytic rate law for the formation of aminosilane products in a model study of one of the catalytic reactions suggests a mechanism involving the silane component in the deprotonation of the amine (possibly in the form of a hypervalent silicon hydride).We thank The EU (ERC Advanced Investigator Grant for D.S.W., studentship for L.K.A.) and The EU (Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship for R.G.-R).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final published version is available from the Royal Society of Chemistry at http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2015/DT/c5dt00662g#!divAbstract

Employee voice, equal opportunities and workplace outcomes: an analysis of UK workplaces

Equal opportunity (‘EO’) policy, practice and legislation has existed for a long time in the UK. Diversity Management (‘DM’), seeing diverse workforces as a competitive strength, covering everyone in the workforce, being more gender neutral and inclusive of those traditionally excluded from organisations, has also come to the fore. However, discrimination within companies continues. Amongst the groups most affected are women, those from a BME background, and disabled people. This thesis draws on an analytical framework that enables a holistic approach to studying the links between voice and EO and DM policies. This thesis incorporates four main types of voice workplace – minimal voice, dual voice, direct voice and indirect voice. It also disaggregates two of these four main types of voice workplace. Within the minimal voice category, this thesis distinguishes between the ‘bleak house’ approach and the ‘limited approach’ and within the dual voice category, this research differentiates between the ‘co-existence approach’ and the ‘partnership approach’. This enables this thesis to take a fine grained analytical approach of the links between voice and EO and DM policies, as well as the links between EO and DM and workplace outcomes, measured by absenteeism and voluntary labour turnover (quits), on the other, within the various types of voice workplace. Voice is relevant to the debate because it hasn’t been explored before and they could be an important means to covey employees preferences to employers, and can therefore potentially help to explain variation in the uptake of EO and DM in different workplaces. To ensure that the results of this research reveal the attitude of workplaces to EO and DM policies this thesis will analyse EO and DM policies at a disaggregated level, covering not only a more diverse set EO and DM policies, but also examining a range of workplaces, not only large organisations, as previous studies have often done. The study focuses on three groups that are commonly discriminated against: women, BME groups and those with a disability. Such discrimination can take direct and indirect forms, therefore, policies monitoring recruitment and selection, and promotions for direct and indirect discrimination, and relative pay rates will be examined, for each of the three groups. This study draws on data from the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2011), the largest, most comprehensive study of workplace practices in the UK. The survey covers EO and DM policies in detail, enabling a nuanced analysis of both the voice factors and the workplace outcomes that they may be associated with. The thesis relies on the management survey in order to capture as many workplaces as possible. The analysis of the data relies on logistic regressions, as the outcome variables in both sets of regressions are dichotomous. The first key finding from this research is that voice is associated with the greater adoption of EO and DM policies in workplace: the more voice a workplace has the more likely it is to have a range of EO and DM policies. For instance, workplaces with direct voice, indirect voice, and dual voice are more likely to have a range of policies compared to those workplaces with minimal voice. In addition, dual voice workplaces are frequently more likely to adopt EO and DM policies compared to all other types of workplace. The second key finding of this research is that EO and DM policies are, on the whole, not associated with higher or lower levels of absenteeism and quits, indicating that, in most instances, EO and DM neither help nor harm establishments to any great degree. This suggests that existing theories could be amended. The third important finding is that any statistically significant associations between EO and DM policies, on the one hand, and absenteeism and quits, on the other, depend upon the type of workplace within which the policies operate. For instance, the relationship between policies and outcomes is sometimes positive and statistically significant (albeit often only at the 10-per-cent level) amongst minimal voice workplaces. It is occasionally negative and statistically significant (at the one-per-cent level) amongst dual voice workplaces. This justifies the approach taken here; it also highlights key areas for future research. The fourth key finding of this research is that there is a connection between high levels of labour turnover, amongst minimal voice workplaces, and the use of EO and DM policies. Again, this highlights areas that future research could examine

LUCY: Large scale Urban Consumption of Energy

Model and datasets to document changes in global anthropogenic heat flux (QF) for spatial (30?? × 30?? to 0.5° × 0.5°) resolution and temporal coverage (historical, current and future). See further details in the Lindberg et al. publications linked from this record

Controlled biocatalytic synthesis of a metal nanoparticle-enzyme hybrid: demonstration for catalytic H2-driven NADH recycling

Here we demonstrate the preparation of enzyme-metal biohybrids of NAD+ reductase with biocatalytically-synthesised small gold nanoparticles (NPs, <10 nm) and core-shell gold-platinum NPs for tandem catalysis. Despite the variety of methods available for NP synthesis, there remains a need for more sustainable strategies which also give precise control over the shape and size of the metal NPs for applications in catalysis, biomedical devices, and electronics. We demonstrate facile biosynthesis of spherical, highly uniform, gold NPs under mild conditions using an isolated enzyme moiety, an NAD+ reductase, to reduce metal salts while oxidising a nicotinamide-containing cofactor. By subsequently introducing platinum salts, we show that core-shell Au@Pt NPs can then be formed. Catalytic function of these enzyme-Au@Pt NP hybrids was demonstrated for H2-driven NADH recycling to support enantioselective ketone reduction by an NADH-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase