The Bank For International Settlements: An Evolutionary Institution

Established in 1930 in Basel, Switzerland, to expedite and supervise the payment of reparations by Germany to the victors of World War I, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) quickly evolved into a banking establishment for various national central banks to negotiate and work out mutually-beneficial monetary policies and financial arrangements outside of the usual political and national channels. During World War II the BIS stayed open as a neutral central bank for central banks and provided significant back-channel communications between the Allied and Axis powers that could not have occurred any other way. As an example, discussions for the reconstruction of post-WWII Germany were underway between German and Allied representatives to the BIS at least two years prior to Germany’s surrender in May 1945. The post-WWII BIS then went on to become a global central bank for the world’s national central banks. In spite of the BIS holding so much effective financial power on an international scale and, hence, affecting nearly everyone in the world, few have ever heard of the BIS. This includes many economists and financial-economists. Why? Although technically not a secret organization, the BIS has always maintained an intentionally low profile. The BIS has never advertised its existence. It operates through many other organizations it has either directly created or where it holds major influence. This paper discusses the BIS, its history, and its impact and influence on world events. Questions concerning the role the BIS should possibly play in world events and central banking are raised for discussion near the end of this paper. This paper is focused primarily towards both upper-level undergraduate and graduate finance and economics courses, particularly in the areas of money, banking and financial institutions, financial markets, and monetary policy. However, other courses, to include those outside of the financial-economic arena, can find great use for this subject matter as well. Such outside arenas could include political science and history courses

Electronic Structure of LiH According to a Generalization of the Valence-Bond Method

The wavefunction of LiH has been calculated according to a generalization of the valence-bond method, called the G1 method, which leads to significantly better energies than the Hartree–Fock method, yet retains an independent-particle interpretation. The total energy of the LiH G1 wavefunction is – 8.017 a.u., which accounts for 36% of the difference between the Hartree–Fock and experimental energies. The G1 molecular orbitals, which are discussed in detail, correspond closely to chemists' intuitive concepts of electron orbitals and display bonding properties more clearly than do the Hartree–Fock orbitals. In particular, the bonding orbitals are nodeless between the nuclei and, when compared to the corresponding atomic orbitals, show increased amplitude over essentially the entire internuclear region. Finally, several one-electron properties calculated from the G1 wavefunction are presented

On Determining Orbital Hybridization

A simple method is presented for calculating the hybridization of any orbital. The dependence of the hybridization upon radial distance from er nucleus is discussed, and a procedure for determining the avemge hybridization is suggested with special con-· sideration for doubly occupied orbitals

Factors Governing Nuclear Geometry and Bond-Orbital Directions in Second Row AH2 Molecules

We have obtained valence bond waivefunctions for the neutral, positive ion, and lower excited states of second row AH2 molecules. A number of simple rules emerge which govern the nuclear geometry and bond-orbital directions. These are explained in terms of valence bond orbital characteristics as well as an analysis of energy components

Anti-gravity treadmill rehabilitation improves gait and muscle atrophy in patients with surgically treated ankle and tibial plateau fractures after one year: A randomised clinical trial

To compare the one-year postoperative outcomes of anti-gravity treadmill rehabilitation with those of standard rehabilitation in patients with ankle or tibial plateau fractures

Fortran 90 implementation of the Hartree-Fock approach within the CNDO/2 and INDO models

Despite the tremendous advances made by the ab initio theory of electronic structure of atoms and molecules, its applications are still not possible for very large systems. Therefore, semi-empirical model Hamiltonians based on the zero-differential overlap (ZDO) approach such as the Pariser-Parr-Pople, CNDO, INDO, etc. provide attractive, and computationally tractable, alternatives to the ab initio treatment of large systems. In this paper we describe a Fortran 90 computer program developed by us, that uses CNDO/2 and INDO methods to solve Hartree-Fock(HF) equation for molecular systems. The INDO method can be used for the molecules containing the first-row atoms, while the CNDO/2 method is applicable to those containing both the first-, and the second-row, atoms. We have paid particular attention to computational efficiency while developing the code, and, therefore, it allows us to perform calculations on large molecules such as C_60 on small computers within a matter of seconds. Besides being able to compute the molecular orbitals and total energies, our code is also able to compute properties such as the electric dipole moment, Mulliken population analysis, and linear optical absorption spectrum of the system. We also demonstrate how the program can be used to compute the total energy per unit cell of a polymer. The applications presented in this paper include small organic and inorganic molecules, fullerene C_60, and model polymeric systems, viz., chains containing alternating boron and nitrogen atoms (BN chain), and carbon atoms (C chain).Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Computer Physics Communication

Asymmetric tensor visualization with glyph and hyperstreamline placement on 2D manifolds

Asymmetric tensor fields present new challenges for visualization techniques such as hyperstreamline placement and glyph packing. This is because the physical behaviors of the tensors are fundamentally different inside real domains where eigenvalues are real and complex domains where eigenvalues are complex. We present a hybrid visualization approach in which hyperstreamlines are used to illustrate the tensors in the real domains while glyphs are employed for complex domains. This enables an effective visualization of the flow patterns everywhere and also provides a more intuitive illustration of elliptical flow patterns in the complex domains. The choice of the types of representation for different types of domains is motivated by the physical interpretation of asymmetric tensors in the context of fluid mechanics, i.e., when the tensor field is the velocity gradient tensor. In addition, we encode the tensor magnitude to the size of the glyphs and density of hyperstreamlines. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our visualization techniques with real-world engine simulation data

The integral Hellmann-Feynman theorem applied to hydrogen peroxide

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46455/1/214_2004_Article_BF00529457.pd