Book review: Gerald D. Feldman, Austrian banks in the period of National Socialism

Even though Germany, Austria, and Hungary experienced a major financial crisis simultaneously in 1931, of the three, only Germany's and Austria's episodes have been investigated in depth. This article offers a thorough assessment of the missing piece. It finds that, just like Germany, Hungary also experienced a twin crisis. The primary reason for the weakness of the financial sector was banks’ excessive exposure to agricultural loans. The fragility of the currency was the result of an early balance-of-payments crisis in 1928/9. The vulnerability of the banking and monetary systems culminated in a twin crisis in 1931

Return calculation methodology: Evidence from the Hungarian mutual fund industry

In the empirical finance literature most frequently monthly returns are applied for measuring fund performance or testing market efficiency. We propose a new return calculation method, the daily recalculated monthly returns which has not been used in academic studies for asset pricing purposes. We argue that our method outperforms daily and monthly return calculations in the case of Hungarian mutual funds when only short time series are available. Daily recalculated monthly returns induce the best fitting property of the market model while the time series remain sufficiently long to derive asymptotic tests even when we work on a one-year-long time series. Using our method the estimated parameters and the R 2 s are very close to the results obtained when using monthly returns which are considered a good working approximation

Automated weighting joint inversion of geoelectric data over a two dimensional geologic structure

A new L2 norm joint inversion technique is presented and combined with the series expansion inversion method applied for different simulated erroneous Vertical Electric Sounding (VES) data sets over a complicated two dimensional structure. The applied joint inversion technique takes into consideration the complete form of the likelihood function. As a result there is no need to apply input weights to the individual objective functions. The model consists of three layers with homogeneous resistivities. The first layer boundary is a horizontal plane, the other is a two dimensional laterally varying surface. For the VES inversion the exact data sets were calculated by finite difference method, one in strike direction and the other in dip direction. These data sets were contaminated with normally distributed random errors. During inversion the second layer boundary function was determined. For comparison individual and joint inversion examples were calculated for the two data sets. The best model parameter estimate result was produced by the method of automated weighting

Observation and simulation of an optically driven micromotor

In the realm of low Reynolds number flow there is a need to find methods to pump, move and mix minute amounts of analyte. Interestingly, micro-devices performing such actuation can be initiated by means of the light-matter interaction. Light induced forces and torques are exerted on such micro-objects, which are then driven by the optical gradient or scattering force. Here, different driving geometries can be realized to harness the light induced force. For example, the scattering force enables micro-gears to be operated in a tangential setup where the micromotor rotors are in line with an optical waveguide. The operational geometry we investigate has the advantage that it reduces the complexity of the driving of such a device in a microfluidic environment by delivering the actuating light by means of a waveguide or fiber optic. In this paper we explore the case of a micromotor being driven by a fiber optically delivered light beam. We experimentally investigate how the driving light interacts with and diffracts from the motor, utilizing two-photon imaging. The micromotor rotation rate dependence on the light field parameters is explored. Additionally, a theoretical model based on the paraxial approximation is used to simulate the torque and predict the rotation rate of such a device and compare it with experiment. The results presented show that our model can be used to optimize the micromotor performance and some example motor designs are evaluated.</p

The language learning experiences of students with dyslexia: lessons from an interview study.

Our interview study investigated what experiences Hungarian students with dyslexia have in the language learning group and concerning the general behavior, the instructional methods and assessment techniques of their language teachers. Long qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 students of different ages who studied foreign languages in a variety of educational settings. Our results indicate that the participants generally had negative experiences when studying in groups, especially if the number of students in the group was high, but they enjoyed when they received special attention and the rate of progress was adjusted to their needs. Students with dyslexia were found to be highly appreciative of clear and well-structured explanations and frequent revision opportunities. The students' views confirm the high importance of applying motivational teaching strategies in teaching foreign languages to students with dyslexia and the existence of an indirect link between teachers' attitude to dyslexia, teacher behavior, and language learning effort

Novel approaches to drug-placebo difference calculation: Evidence from short-term antidepressant drug-trials

The calculation of antidepressant-placebo difference (50% - 30% = 20%) in drug trials is based on the postulate that all placebo responders should be 'automatically' antidepressant responders, an assumption that has been never been specifically investigated and substantiated. However, some studies show that a clinically significant part of placebo responders are also antidepressant nonresponders. The traditional calculation of antidepressant-placebo difference seems, therefore, to be wrong because of an inherent fundamental bias resulting in a marked overestimation of the placebo effect. If the mechanism of action of antidepressant and placebo are independent (unrelated) and the randomization results in two identical (homogenous) groups of patients, then the two basic principles by which the evaluation of potentially useful drugs are based on, such as the relationship between antidepressant response and placebo response rates, would also be independent. In this case, only 50% of placebo responders are antidepressant responders (and another 50% of them are antidepressant nonresponders) and the antidepressant-placebo difference would be 50% - 15% = 35%, instead of 50% - 30% = 20%, as calculated by the traditional method. For real interpretation, decisions that have been made on traditional drug-placebo difference evaluation should be recalculated and reviewed, not only in major depression but also in other psychiatric and medical disorders where the drug-placebo difference is in the same magnitude. © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd

Electro-optical measurements on aqueous suspension of purple membrane from Halobacterium halobium.

The permanent dipole moment, polarizability, and the retinal angle of Halobacterium halobium purple membranes were determined at different pH values. All of the parameters have a maximum between pH 5 and 6. There is a reversal in the direction of the permanent dipole moment near pH 5. The value of permanent dipole moment was determined to be 60 D/protein at pH 6.6, and the value obtained for polarizability was 3 X 10(-28) Fm2/membrane fragment. The retinal angle of all-trans retinal was 0.8 degrees smaller than that of the 13-cis conformation

Different relaxations in myoglobin after photolysis

To clarify the interplay of kinetic hole-burning (KHB), structural relaxation, and ligand migration in myoglobin (Mb), we measured time-resolved absorption spectra in the Soret region after photolysis of carbon monoxide Mb (MbCO) in the temperature interval 120-260 K and in the time window 350 ns to 200 ms. The spectral contributions of both photolyzed (Mb(*)) and liganded Mb (MbCO) have been analyzed by taking into account homogeneous bandwidth, coupling to vibrational modes, and static conformational heterogeneity. We succeeded in separating the “time-dependent” spectral changes, and this work provides possibilities to identify the events in the process of ligand rebinding. KHB is dominant at T <190 K in both the Mb(*) and the MbCO components. For MbCO, conformational substates interconversion at higher temperatures tends to average out the KHB effect. At 230-260 K, whereas almost no shift is observed in the MbCO spectrum, a shift of the order of ≈80 cm(-1) is observed in Mb(*). We attribute this shift to protein relaxation coupled to ligand migration. The time dependence of the Mb(*) spectral shift is interpreted with a model that enables us to calculate the highly nonexponential relaxation kinetics. Fits of stretched exponentials to this kinetics yield Kohlrausch parameter values of 0.25, confirming the analogy between proteins and glasses