Is bank lending special?

Bank loans ; Financial institutions ; Commercial loans

Fishes of the King Edward and Carson Rivers with their Belaa and Ngarinyin names

During two separate sampling trips, in October to November 2004 and in June to July 2005, 42 sites on the King Edward River and Carson River and their tributaries were sampled for fish. Fish were captured using fine mesh seine nets and gill nets and were observed using mask and snorkel and from visual surveys. The results of this study have revealed that the number of freshwater fishes (species diversity) of the King Edward River is higher than has previously been recorded for a Western Australian river. Twenty-six freshwater fish species were recorded, which is three species higher than the much larger Fitzroy River in the southern Kimberley. The study also resulted in a number of range extensions, including Butler’s Grunter and Silver Cobbler to the west, and the Slender Gudgeon to the north and east. What appears to be an undescribed species of glassfish was captured. It differs morphologically from described species in head spines (or lack of), fin rays, as well as relative body measurements. Similarly, an undescribed ectoparasite, Argulus sp. (Crustacea: Branchiura), was found on the caudal (tail) fin lobes of one Black Bream (Jenkin’s Grunter) and three Spangled Perch. Interestingly, a considerable proportion of Black Bream, which is widespread throughout the system but essentially restricted to main channel sites, had ‘blubber-lips’. There were significant differences in the prevailing fish fauna of the different reaches of the King Edward River system. Thus fish associations in the upper King Edward River main channel were significantly different to those in the tributaries and the main channel of the Carson River. Similarly, the fauna of the Carson River, which was much more diverse than the King Edward River main channel and tributary sites, was characterised by many species that were not found in other parts of the river. The presence of barriers, in the form of waterfalls which do not permit upstream migrations of fishes are considered to be the main factor in limiting the distribution of many species. For example, many species are restricted to the lower sections of the Carson River, and include Bony Bream, Lesser Salmon Catfish, Silver Cobbler, Black Catfish, False-spined Catfish, Freshwater Longtom, Prince Regent Hardyhead, Mouth Almighty, Barred Grunter and Butler’s Grunter. It is hypothesised that these natural barriers were in place long before many of these latter species colonised the King Edward River. Some species tend to only be found within tributary sites, e.g. Kimberley Mogurnda, while others are most abundant in tributaries rather than main channel sites, e.g. Western Rainbowfish and Spangled Perch. Waterfalls are also seen as limiting the number of migratory marine/estuarine species that enter freshwaters. For example, only three species that require the marine/estuarine environment to complete their life-cycle (i.e. salt water) were captured in the freshwaters of the King Edward River system. This compares to 14 species that utilise the freshwaters of the Fitzroy River

Morasses, square and forcing axioms

AbstractThe paper discusses various relationships between the concepts mentioned in the title. In Section 1 Todorcevic functions are shown to arise from both morasses and square. In Section 2 the theme is of supplements to morasses which have some of the flavour of square. Distinctions are drawn between differing concepts. In Section 3 forcing axioms related to the ideas in Section 2 are discussed

I Click, You Click, We all Click - But Do We Have a Contract? A Case Comment on Aspenceri.com v. Paysystems

It is trite to say that e-commerce has exploded over the last several years. Canadian individuals and businesses are entering into thousands and thousands of contracts online all the time. Yet, oddly enough, there is surprisingly little legal certainty or consistency regarding an essential legal question: what approach to online contract formation will create a binding legal contract? Such legal uncertainty is unfortunate, since buyers need to know when to ‘‘beware’’, merchants need to be able to manage risk, and courts need to have clear guidelines in order to be able to render informed, coherent decisions. The issue of online contract formation was recently treated in the Quebec court decision Aspencerl.com v. Paysystems Corporation (Paysystems). The legal argument in the decision differs significantly from existing Canadian and Quebec jurisprudence on the subject of online contract formation. Accordingly, this case com- ment is intended to analyse and critique the Paysystems decision, to discuss and evaluate current approaches to online contract formation more generally, and to provide advice regarding how to mitigate the risk of a finding of non-enforceability

Crown Ether-Modified Clays and their Polystyrene Nanocomposites

Crown ether-modified clays were obtained by the combination of sodium and potassium clays with crown ethers and cryptands. Polystyrene nanocomposites were prepared by bulk polymerization in the presence of these clays. The structures of nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Their thermal stability and flame retardancy were measured by thermogravimetric analysis and cone calorimetry, respectively. Nanocomposites can be formed only from the potassium clays; apparently the sodium clays are not sufficiently organophilic to enable nanocomposite formation. The onset temperature of the degradation is higher for the nanocomposites compared to virgin polystyrene, and the peak heat release rate is decreased by 25% to 30%

A framework for forcing constructions at successors of singular cardinals

We describe a framework for proving consistency results about singular cardinals of arbitrary cofinality and their successors. This framework allows the construction of models in which the Singular Cardinals Hypothesis fails at a singular cardinal κ of uncountable cofinality, while κ^+ enjoys various combinatorial properties. As a sample application, we prove the consistency (relative to that of ZFC plus a supercompact cardinal) of there being a strong limit singular cardinal κ of uncountable cofinality where SCH fails and such that there is a collection of size less than 2^{κ^+} of graphs on κ^+ such that any graph on κ^+ embeds into one of the graphs in the collection