The Insurance Industry in the ASEAN5 Economies: Tapping Its Potential

Has the insurance industry in the five ASEAN economies been fully tapped to help in fostering the development of capital markets in the region? This Policy Notes concludes that the industry is still relatively underdeveloped and untapped, and argues that the government regulatory framework plays a big role in engendering its growth and development. Read more.insurance industry, insurance regulation, ASEAN-5

Deregulation of Bank Entry and Branching: Impact on Competition

Does deregulation of entry and branching restrictions in the country's commercial banking sector foster a more competitive atmosphere? What are the effects of the regulatory restrictions on bank entry and branching on the structure, conduct and performance of the Philippines' commercial banking sector? This Notes reviews the impact of such restrictions and argues for a continuing easing of the rules on entry and branching.competition, deregulation, entry barriers, bank entry and branching, commercial banking sector

Measuring Bank Competitiveness: Has Financial Liberalization Increased Competition?

The financial liberalization in the 1990s appears to have aided the increase in competition among Philippine banks despite the increasing trend in concentration from bank mergers. The finding that Philippine banking industry is close to being perfectly competitive means that further consolidation in the banking sector would not severely undermine market competition.competition, banking sector, bank liberalization

Topology of biological networks and reliability of information processing

Biological systems rely on robust internal information processing: Survival depends on highly reproducible dynamics of regulatory processes. Biological information processing elements, however, are intrinsically noisy (genetic switches, neurons, etc.). Such noise poses severe stability problems to system behavior as it tends to desynchronize system dynamics (e.g. via fluctuating response or transmission time of the elements). Synchronicity in parallel information processing is not readily sustained in the absence of a central clock. Here we analyze the influence of topology on synchronicity in networks of autonomous noisy elements. In numerical and analytical studies we find a clear distinction between non-reliable and reliable dynamical attractors, depending on the topology of the circuit. In the reliable cases, synchronicity is sustained, while in the unreliable scenario, fluctuating responses of single elements can gradually desynchronize the system, leading to non-reproducible behavior. We find that the fraction of reliable dynamical attractors strongly correlates with the underlying circuitry. Our model suggests that the observed motif structure of biological signaling networks is shaped by the biological requirement for reproducibility of attractors.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

The need for a second black hole at the Galactic center

Deep infra-red observations and long-term monitoring programs have provided dynamical evidence for a supermassive black hole of mass 3.e6 solar masses associated with the radio source Sagitarrius A* at the center of our Galaxy. The brightest stars orbiting within 0.1 parsecs of the black hole appear to be young, massive main sequence stars, n spite of an environment near the black hole that is hostile to star formation. We discuss mechanisms by which stars born outside the central parsec can sink towards the black hole and conclude that the drag coming from plausible stellar populations does not operate on the short timescales required by the stellar ages. We propose that these stars were dragged in by a second black hole of mass of 1.e3-1.e4 solar masses, which would be classified as an intermediate-mass black hole. We discuss the implications for the stellar populations and the kinematics in the Galactic center. Finally we note that continued astrometric monitoring of the central radio source offers the prospect for a direct detection of such objects.Comment: 5 pages, 2 postscript figures, submitted to ApJ letters The introduction section has been updated since submission to Ap

Viola purpurea Kellogg

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/herbarium_specimens_byname/20126/thumbnail.jp

Viola praemorsa Douglas

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/herbarium_specimens_byname/20125/thumbnail.jp

Patterns of Interactions in Complex Social Networks Based on Coloured Motifs Analysis

Coloured network motifs are small subgraphs that enable to discover and interpret the patterns of interaction within the complex networks. The analysis of three-nodes motifs where the colour of the node reflects its high – white node or low – black node centrality in the social network is presented in the paper. The importance of the vertices is assessed by utilizing two measures: degree prestige and degree centrality. The distribution of motifs in these two cases is compared to mine the interconnection patterns between nodes. The analysis is performed on the social network derived from email communication

Contagion Effects of the Asian Crisis, Policy Responses and their Social Implications

This paper looks at the contagion effects of the Asian crisis on the Philippine economy, the policy responses, and their social implications. In particular, the paper discusses the role of the financial sector in the evolution of the crisis. In Section II, the recent performance of the Philippine economy, the financial sector and the social sector is reviewed in order to better situate the Asian crisis and its contagion effects on the Philippines. Section III then looks at the economic and social impacts of the Asian crisis on the Philippines, as well as the government's policy responses. The government's social safety net programs are then discussed in Section IV. Finally, Section V presents some conclusions and the continuing policy issues.social safety net programs, Asian crisis