Minority-owned banks: history and trends

A review of the current status of the U.S. minority banking industry, with particular emphasis on how minority-owned banks compare with nonminority peer banks on specific balance-sheet items.Minority-owned banks

Current video compression algorithms: Comparisons, optimizations, and improvements

Compression algorithms have evolved significantly in recent years. Audio, still image, and video can be compressed significantly by taking advantage of the natural redundancies that occur within them. Video compression in particular has made significant advances. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, two of the major video compression standards, allowed video to be compressed at very low bit rates compared to the original video. The compression ratio for video that is perceptually lossless (losses can\u27t be visually perceived) can even be as high as 40 or 50 to 1 for certain videos. Videos with a small degradation in quality can be compressed at 100 to 1 or more; Although the MPEG standards provided low bit rate compression, even higher quality compression is required for efficient transmission over limited bandwidth networks, wireless networks, and broadcast mediums. Significant gains have been made over the current MPEG-2 standard in a newly developed standard called the Advanced Video Coder, also known as H.264 and MPEG-4 part 10. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Biallelic and Genome Wide Association Mapping of Germanium Tolerant Loci in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Funding: This project was partially funded by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grant (BB/J003336/1) awarded to AHP. The work was also supported by a self-funded studentship (PT). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

On Typical Materials Acting as the Dividing Standard of the Development Stages of Human Substance Civilization

During more than three million years, the substance civilization of human society went through the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Steel and Cement Age, and the Silicon Age. At the beginning of the new century, the human society has entered into the Nanomaterials Age, which indicates that a completely new substance civilization of human society has started. This paper analyses and discusses why the typical materials serve as the only standard for dividing the eras of the substance civilization of human society. The author argues about the subject of dividing the substance civilization of human society. The goal is to initiate broad and thorough discussion of that subject so as to get a rather thorough understanding about it

Values and assumptions in the concept of cultural leadership.

Cultural leadership is still a young concept in cultural policy and academic study. Emerging as a sectoral concern in the UK around 2002, its early development as both practice and discourse took place during a time of notable growth and optimism for the cultural sector, despite being rooted in a perceived crisis of institutional management. It has developed into a training and development agenda of international significance. Changes in economic and political circumstances over the past three years have dramatically altered the context in which cultural leaders operate. This is to some extent reflected in the terminological shift towards resilience in recent initiatives. However, the largely economistic foundation of cultural leadership discourse remains unchallenged, with a continuing emphasis on achieving well-run cultural businesses and sustainable structures. This paper reconsiders cultural leadershipŸs history as a live topic in the policy arena and questions the sufficiency of the values which continue to underpin it. It argues that the key site of crisis for cultural leaders has shifted from organisational governance to the social, ethical and aesthetic demands of an emerging political era, the nature of which cultural leaders must themselves play a role in shaping. These issues are explored through interviews with artists, producers and cultural activists, while the assumptions of cultural leadership discourse are considered with reference to key literature and research. A more complex and critical approach to cultural leadership is proposed, demanding dynamic responses from policy makers and practitioners alike

Introduction. The Social construction of the Anthropocene: theoretical and ethical perspectives

The ancient one-to-one relationship with the biological life cycle has gradually deteriorated due to the world undergoing a metamorphic process. Such a metamorphosis has affected ecological harmony, in terms of it being both an approach to studying the relationships between living beings and the environment, and a branch of knowledge protecting and promoting ecological balance. One of the crucial aspects of this phenomenon is the need to rethink and redefine the concept of life in an era that has been described as the “Anthropocene”. In introducing this special issue of the Journal, the paper aims to investigate the environmental question, which plays a crucial role in contemporary political thought, due to the survival of both nature and mankind being threatened. Since the 1950s, such a complex situation has resulted in two lines of thought whose views follow two opposed ideologies – anthropocentrism and anti-anthropocentrism

Advanced composite applications for sub-micron biologically derived microstructures

A major thrust of advanced material development is in the area of self-assembled ultra-fine particulate based composites (micro-composites). The application of biologically derived, self-assembled microstructures to form advanced composite materials is discussed. Hollow 0.5 micron diameter cylindrical shaped microcylinders self-assemble from diacetylenic lipids. These microstructures have a multiplicity of potential applications in the material sciences. Exploratory development is proceeding in application areas such as controlled release for drug delivery, wound repair, and biofouling as well as composites for electronic and magnetic applications, and high power microwave cathodes