DP35 South East Europe Series Designing an Incentive-Compatible Safety Net in a Financial System in Transition: The Case of Serbia

Abstract This paper looks at banking as a regulated industry. Inequality of information among various participants is assumed as well as the existence of different incentives. The paper argues that regulation in general and a safety net in particular are necessary to make the financial service industry operate in a safe and appropriate way. From this vantage point, transition banking and, more closely, peculiarities of the Serbian system are analysed. Some guidelines for redesigning the existing safety net in Serbian banking are proposed.

Domain wall QCD with physical quark masses

We present results for several light hadronic quantities ($f_\pi$, $f_K$, $B_K$, $m_{ud}$, $m_s$, $t_0^{1/2}$, $w_0$) obtained from simulations of 2+1 flavor domain wall lattice QCD with large physical volumes and nearly-physical pion masses at two lattice spacings. We perform a short, O(3)%, extrapolation in pion mass to the physical values by combining our new data in a simultaneous chiral/continuum `global fit' with a number of other ensembles with heavier pion masses. We use the physical values of $m_\pi$, $m_K$ and $m_\Omega$ to determine the two quark masses and the scale - all other quantities are outputs from our simulations. We obtain results with sub-percent statistical errors and negligible chiral and finite-volume systematics for these light hadronic quantities, including: $f_\pi$ = 130.2(9) MeV; $f_K$ = 155.5(8) MeV; the average up/down quark mass and strange quark mass in the $\bar {\rm MS}$ scheme at 3 GeV, 2.997(49) and 81.64(1.17) MeV respectively; and the neutral kaon mixing parameter, $B_K$, in the RGI scheme, 0.750(15) and the $\bar{\rm MS}$ scheme at 3 GeV, 0.530(11).Comment: 131 pages, 30 figures. Updated to match published versio

Calculation of the Hadronic Vacuum Polarization Disconnected Contribution to the Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment

We report the first lattice QCD calculation of the hadronic vacuum polarization disconnected contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment at physical pion mass. The calculation uses a refined noise-reduction technique which enabled the control of statistical uncertainties at the desired level with modest computational effort. Measurements were performed on the $48^3 \times 96$ physical-pion-mass lattice generated by the RBC and UKQCD collaborations. We find $a_\mu^{\rm HVP~(LO)~DISC} = -9.6(3.3)(2.3)\times 10^{-10}$, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figure

Desenvolvimento de um nanocompósito de matriz de polietileno (PEAD) com adição de nanocargas com expansão térmica negativa da família A2M3O12

Com a revolução nanotecnológica surgiu a possibilidade de manipulação dos materiais em níveis submicroscópicos. Três áreas da engenharia de materiais foram correlacionadas no presente trabalho: materiais poliméricos, nanomateriais e materiais cerâmicos com expansão térmica negativa, da reunião dessas áreas estão sendo desenvolvidos os nanocompósitos poliméricos para aplicações especiais, tais como na redução da expansão térmica positiva dos polímeros termoplásticos. Neste trabalho foi desenvolvido um novo nanocompósito com matriz de PEAD e nanocargas da família A2M3O12, especificamente o Al2Mo3O12 sintetizado pelo método de co-preciptação, uma rota de baixas energias térmicas. O processamento do nanocompósito foi realizado em uma micro-extrusora de 2 roscas e o material foi injetado em um molde de corpos de prova de ensaios de tração, com percentuais em peso de nanocargas predefinidos em 0,5%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% e 5%. Foram realizadas caracterizações térmicas, com microscópio eletrônico e mecânicas dos corpos de prova, obtendo-se detalhamentos micro-nanoestruturais. Sob o aspecto mecânico o principal objetivo foi estudar e evidenciar uma não redução de propriedades mecânicas e investigar possíveis melhorias, que foram obtidas em seus módulos de elasticidade e limite de resistência mecânica. Comparando o módulo de Young e o limite de resistência do PEAD puro de 1,2 GPa e 26 MPa respectivamente, ficou evidente o aumento destas propriedades mecânicas em 27% e 7%, visto que foram alcançados valores de 1,65 GPa e 28 MPa, para a amostra com 2% em peso. Com isso o nanocompósito mostrou-se promissor com possibilidades de aplicações mecânicas substitucionais em relação aos materiais clássicos de componentes e peças atualmente usados

Generalized oscillator strength for Na 3s-3p transition

Generalized oscillator strengths (GOS's) for the Na $3s -3p$ transition have been investigated using the spin-polarized technique of the random phase approximation with exchange (RPAE) and the first Born approximation (FBA), focussing our attention on the position of the minimum. Intershell correlations are found to influence the position of the minimum significantly, but hardly that of the maximum. The RPAE calculation predicts for the first time the positions of the minimum and maximum at momentum transfer, $K$ values of 1.258 a.u. and 1.61 a.u., respectively. The former value is within the range of values extracted from experimental measurements, $K=1.0-1.67$ a.u.. We recommend careful experimental search for the minimum around the predicted value for confirmation.Comment: 11 pages, 2figure

Alcohol affects neuronal substrates of response inhibition but not of perceptual processing of stimuli signalling a stop response

Alcohol impairs inhibitory control, including the ability to terminate an initiated action. While there is increasing knowledge about neural mechanisms involved in response inhibition, the level at which alcohol impairs such mechanisms remains poorly understood. Thirty-nine healthy social drinkers received either 0.4g/kg or 0.8g/kg of alcohol, or placebo, and performed two variants of a Visual Stop-signal task during acquisition of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. The two task variants differed only in their instructions: in the classic variant (VSST), participants inhibited their response to a “Go-stimulus” when it was followed by a “Stop-stimulus”. In the control variant (VSST_C), participants responded to the “Go-stimulus” even if it was followed by a “Stop-stimulus”. Comparison of successful Stop-trials (Sstop)>Go, and unsuccessful Stop-trials (Ustop)>Sstop between the three beverage groups enabled the identification of alcohol effects on functional neural circuits supporting inhibitory behaviour and error processing. Alcohol impaired inhibitory control as measured by the Stop-signal reaction time, but did not affect other aspects of VSST performance, nor performance on the VSST_C. The low alcohol dose evoked changes in neural activity within prefrontal, temporal, occipital and motor cortices. The high alcohol dose evoked changes in activity in areas affected by the low dose but importantly induced changes in activity within subcortical centres including the globus pallidus and thalamus. Alcohol did not affect neural correlates of perceptual processing of infrequent cues, as revealed by conjunction analyses of VSST and VSST_C tasks. Alcohol ingestion compromises the inhibitory control of action by modulating cortical regions supporting attentional, sensorimotor and action-planning processes. At higher doses the impact of alcohol also extends to affect subcortical nodes of fronto-basal ganglia- thalamo-cortical motor circuits. In contrast, alcohol appears to have little impact on the early visual processing of infrequent perceptual cues. These observations clarify clinically-important effects of alcohol on behaviour

Methodological advances in imaging intravital axonal transport.

Axonal transport is the active process whereby neurons transport cargoes such as organelles and proteins anterogradely from the cell body to the axon terminal and retrogradely in the opposite direction. Bi-directional transport in axons is absolutely essential for the functioning and survival of neurons and appears to be negatively impacted by both aging and diseases of the nervous system, such as Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The movement of individual cargoes along axons has been studied in vitro in live neurons and tissue explants for a number of years; however, it is currently unclear as to whether these systems faithfully and consistently replicate the in vivo situation. A number of intravital techniques originally developed for studying diverse biological events have recently been adapted to monitor axonal transport in real-time in a range of live organisms and are providing novel insight into this dynamic process. Here, we highlight these methodological advances in intravital imaging of axonal transport, outlining key strengths and limitations while discussing findings, possible improvements, and outstanding questions

Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of blended cement concrete including carbonation and durability

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11367-013-0614-0Purpose Blended cements use waste products to replace Portland cement, the main contributor to CO2 emissions in concrete manufacture. Using blended cements reduces the embodied greenhouse gas emissions; however, little attention has been paid to the reduction in CO2 capture (carbonation) and durability. The aim of this study is to determine if the reduction in production emissions of blended cements compensates for the reduced durability and CO2 capture. Methods This study evaluates CO2 emissions and CO2 capture for a reinforced concrete column during its service life and after demolition and reuse as gravel filling material. Concrete depletion, due to carbonation and the unavoidable steel embedded corrosion, is studied, as this process consequently ends the concrete service life. Carbonation deepens progressively during service life and captures CO2 even after demolition due to the greater exposed surface area. In this study, results are presented as a function of cement replaced by fly ash (FA) and blast furnace slag (BFS). Results and discussion Concrete made with Portland cement, FA (35%FA), and BFS blended cements (80%BFS) captures 47, 41, and 20 % of CO2 emissions, respectively. The service life of blended cements with high amounts of cement replacement, like CEM III/A (50 % BFS), CEM III/B (80 % BFS), and CEMII/B-V (35%FA), was about 10%shorter, given the higher carbonation rate coefficient. Compared to Portland cement and despite the reduced CO2 capture and service life, CEM III/B emitted 20 % less CO2 per year. Conclusions To obtain reliable results in a life cycle assessment, it is crucial to consider carbonation during use and after demolition. Replacing Portland cement with FA, instead of BFS, leads to a lower material emission factor, since FA needs less processing after being collected, and transport distances are usually shorter. However, greater reductions were achieved using BFS, since a larger amount of cement can be replaced. Blended cements emit less CO2 per year during the life cycle of a structure, although a high cement replacement reduces the service life notably. If the demolished concrete is crushed and recycled as gravel filling material, carbonation can cut CO2 emissions by half. A case study is presented in this paper demonstrating how the results may be utilized.This research was financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (research project BIA2011-23602). The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and useful suggestions. 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