Regulating Securitisation in the Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis: Lessons from Europe

The conventional narrative surrounding securitisation after the Global Financial Crisis was based on a fundamentally flawed understanding of the real role and purpose of the financing technique. It failed sufficiently to distinguish between transactions that were entered into to support real economy lending, and/or as a means of transferring risk for regulatory capital purposes, and more complex structures that were developed later to profit from arbitrage opportunities. Falling under the spell of this conventional narrative, the regulator developed post-crisis an ever-changing, all-encompassing and highly punitive regulatory framework that resulted in the virtual disappearance of the European securitisation market. A new regulatory framework was introduced in 2019 and, although not yet finalised, it does go some way towards addressing the shortcomings of its predecessor. It remains to be seen whether the new regime will suceed in primary objection of reviving the market; early indications suggest further changes will be required

Linkage mapping, comparative genome analysis, and QTL detection for growth in a non-model teleost, the meagre Argyrosomus regius, using ddRAD sequencing

Meagre (Argyrosomus regius), is a benthopelagic species rapidly emerging in aquaculture, due to its low food to biomass conversion rate, good fillet yield and ease of production. Tracing a species genomic background along with describing the genetic basis of important traits can greatly influence both conservation strategies and production perspectives. In this study, we employed ddRAD sequencing of 266 fish from six F1 meagre families, to construct a high-density genetic map comprising 4529 polymorphic SNP markers. The QTL mapping analysis provided a genomic appreciation for the weight trait identifying a statistically significant QTL on linkage group 15 (LG15). The comparative genomics analysis with six teleost species revealed an evolutionarily conserved karyotype structure. The synteny observed, verified the already well-known fusion events of the three-spine stickleback genome, reinforced the evidence of reduced evolutionary distance of Sciaenids with the Sparidae family, reflected the evolutionary proximity with Dicentrarchus labrax, traced several putative chromosomal rearrangements and a prominent putative fusion event in meagre’s LG17. This study presents novel elements concerning the genome evolutionary history of a non-model teleost species recently adopted in aquaculture, starts to unravel the genetic basis of the species growth-related traits, and provides a high-density genetic map as a tool that can help to further establish meagre as a valuable resource for research and production.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Extreme-ultraviolet pump-probe studies of one femtosecond scale electron dynamics

Studies of ultrafast dynamics along with femtosecond-pulse metrology rely on non-linear processes, induced solely by the exciting/probing pulses or the pulses to be characterized. Extension of these approaches to the extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) spectral region opens up a new, direct route to attosecond scale dynamics. Limitations in available intensities of coherent XUV continua kept this prospect barren. The present work overcomes this barrier. Reaching condition at which simultaneous ejection of two bound electrons by two-XUV-photon absorption becomes more efficient than their one-by-one removal it is succeeded to probe atomic coherences, evolving at the 1fs scale, and determine the XUV-pulse duration. The investigated rich and dense in structure autoionizing manifold ascertains applicability of the approach to complex systems. This initiates the era of XUV-pump-XUV-probe experiments with attosecond resolution.Comment: 27 page

Viscoelastic properties of orthodontic adhesives used for lingual fixed retainer bonding

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the viscoelastic properties of two experimental BPA-free and one BisGMA-based orthodontic resin composite adhesives for bonding fixed retainers. METHODS: A commercially available BisGMA-based (TXA: Transbond LR) and two bisphenol A-free experimental adhesives (EXA and EXB) were included in the study. The viscoelastic behavior of the adhesives was evaluated under static and dynamic conditions at dry and wet states and at various temperatures (21, 37, 50°C). The parameters determined were shear modulus (G), Young's modulus (E) under static testing and storage modulus (G1), loss tangent (tanδ) and dynamic viscosity (n*) under dynamic testing. Statistical analysis was performed by 2-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc tests (α=0.05). RESULTS: For static testing, a significant difference was found within material and storage condition variables and a significant interaction between the two independent variables (p<0.001 for G and E). EXA demonstrated the highest G and E values at 21°C/dry group. Dry specimens showed the highest G and E values, but with no significant difference from 21°C/wet specimens, except EXA in G. Wet storage at higher temperatures (37°C and 50°C) adversely affected all the materials to a degree ranging from 40 to 60% (p<0.001). For dynamic testing, a significant difference was also found in material and testing condition groups, with a significant interaction between the two independent variables (p<0.001 for G1 and n*, p<0.01 for tanδ). Reduction in G1, and n* values, and increase in tanδ values were encountered at increased water temperatures. SIGNIFICANCE: The apparent detrimental effect of high temperature on the reduction of properties of adhesives may contribute to the loss of stiffness of the fixed retainer configuration under ordinary clinical conditions with unfavorable effects on tooth position and stability of the orthodontic treatment result

Characterisation of real GPRS traffic with analytical tools

With GPRS and UMTS networks lunched, wireless multimedia services are commercially becoming the most attractive applications next to voice. Because of the nature of bursty, packet-switched schemes and multiple data rates, the traditional Erlang approach and Poisson models for characterising voice-centric services traffic are not suitable for studying wireless multimedia services traffic. Therefore, research on the characterisation of wireless multimedia services traffic is very challenging. The typical reference for the study of wireless multimedia services traffic is wired Internet services traffic. However, because of the differences in network protocol, bandwidth, and QoS requirements between wired and wireless services, their traffic characterisations may not be similar. Wired network Internet traffic shows self-similarity, long-range dependence and its file sizes exhibit heavy-tailedness. This paper reports the use of existing tools to analyse real GPRS traffic data to establish whether wireless multimedia services traffic have similar properties as wired Internet services traffic

The social history of modern Greece: A roundtable

[No abstract available

Experimental and numerical determination of the mechanical response of teeth with reinforced posts

The aim of this study was to evaluate the mechanical behavior of endodontically treated teeth restored with fiber reinforced composite posts versus titanium posts, by both experimental testing and numerical simulation (finite element analysis (FEA)). Forty maxillary central incisors were endodontically treated to a size 45 file and then obturated using gutta-percha points and sealer with the lateral condensation technique. The teeth were divided into four groups of ten teeth each. All the posts were of similar dimensions. The first group was restored using carbon fiber reinforced posts (CB), the second and third groups were restored using glass fiber reinforced posts (DP and FW, respectively), and the fourth group (control group) was restored using conventional titanium posts (PP). Half of the specimens of every group were submitted to hydrothermal cycling (2000 cycles, at 5 °C and 55 °C, respectively). All specimens were loaded until failure at a 45° angle with respect to the longitudinal axis at a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm min-1. A two-dimensional finite element model was designed in order to simulate the experimentally obtained results. Mechanical testing revealed that teeth restored with titanium posts exhibited the highest fracture strength. Debonding of the core was the main failure mode observed in glass fiber posts, whereas vertical root fractures were observed in the titanium posts. FEA revealed that the maximum stresses were developed at the interface between the post, dentin and the composite core critical regions in all three cases. Hydrothermal cycling had no significant effect on the fracture behavior of fiber reinforced composite posts. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd