Der Handel von Kreditrisiken: eine neue Dimension des Kapitalmarktes

This paper makes an attempt to present the economics of credit securitization in a non-technical way, starting from the description and the analysis of a typical securitization transaction. The paper sketches a theoretical explanation for why tranching, or nonproportional risk sharing, which is at the heart of securitization transactions, may allow commercial banks to maximize their shareholder value. However, the analysis makes also clear that the conditions under which credit securitization enhances welfare, are fairly restrictive, and require not only an active role of the banking supervisiory authorities, but also a price tag on the implicit insurance currently provided by the lender of last resort. Klassifikation: D82, G21, D74. February 16, 2005

Ecologies of Hope: environment, technology and habitation - case studies from the intervenient middle

This paper is an introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Political Ecology on "Ecologies of Hope." The authors argue that discrete, specific, and often, local actions can create spaces that are bettering human lives and livelihoods. The five papers identify actions and movements that are situated in the "middle" between the individual and larger social and economic formations, and inbetween social and economic status- quo and revolution. They are everyday initiatives that do not make revolutionary claims, but which in small but significant ways, help transform the lives of people and communities. These "ecologies of hope" resonate with the work of Karl Polanyi, and his identification of the modern disembedding of the economy and the environment from its societal and cultural context. Polanyi argued that processes that result in a loss of cultural "habitation" engender movements by societies to protect their social solidarity, and distortions of their relationship with the natural environment. Creating and carving out "ecologies of hope" may not mitigate catastrophic global change or miraculously transform the unjust into the just, but does make life and livelihoods a bit more habitable. For people whose lives are affected, this matters. Political ecology should recognize the importance of creating spaces for "habitation" that are not necessarily structural and scalable. Key words: Karl Polanyi, ecologies of hope, habitation, self-organized communities

From double Lie groupoids to local Lie 2-groupoids

We apply the bar construction to the nerve of a double Lie groupoid to obtain a local Lie 2-groupoid. As an application, we recover Haefliger's fundamental groupoid from the fundamental double groupoid of a Lie groupoid. In the case of a symplectic double groupoid, we study the induced closed 2-form on the associated local Lie 2-groupoid, which leads us to propose a definition of a symplectic 2-groupoid.Comment: 23 pages, a few minor changes, including a correction to Lemma 6.

Dietary Yeast Cell Wall Extract Alters the Proteome of the Skin Mucous Barrier in Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) : Increased Abundance and Expression of a Calreticulin-Like Protein

Funding: This work was supported by a studentship from BioMar Ltd. to GM. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Experimental analysis for performance of concrete with addition of steel fibres, SBR and polypropylene fibres

Sufficient experimentation is observed in literature to examine the brittle behaviour of concrete. Presently, addition of different modified polymer and fibres can be treated as an effective way for improving the behaviour of concrete. Steel fibres are now generally mixed with concrete as because of such fibres sufficient strengths are gained. Fibre Reinforced Concrete acquires high stiffness, strength and durability subjected to different environment. In this experimental investigation it is mixed steel fibres with concrete with various percentages (0.35% to 0.85%) with addition of Polypropylene fibre. The primary objective is first to check whether the employment of steel fibres allows the improvement in strength. Next objective is to verify the effect of a mixing of steel fibres and modified polymer namely SBR. The third objective of the present study deals with the combination of steel fibres with synthetic polypropylene fibres in varying percentages. Preparation of specimen is performed in lab for different contents% of styrene butadiene rubber polymer with the hooked end SF. The experimental program includes cube, cylinder and beam specimens with fabricated in 1% to 10% steel fibres. Further 15% modified polymer-SBR is added in the different mixes. After this 0.15% to 0.25% polypropylene is mixed to M30 and M40 grade of concrete. The volume fraction for fibre having 100 kg/m3 of steel fibres (1.27% Vf) may be effectively employed. It is seen that by varying the %contents of SF’s and SBR; strong bond is developed leading to bridge of micro cracks by the polypropylene in RC members

Association between promoter methylation of MLH1 and MSH2 and reactive oxygen species in oligozoospermic men—A pilot study

MLH1 and MSH2 are important genes for DNA mismatch repair and crossing over during meiosis and are implicated in male infertility. Therefore, the methylation patterns of the DNA mismatch repair genes MLH1 and MSH2 in oligozoospermic males were investigated. Ten oligozoospermic patients and 29 normozoospermic donors were analysed. Methylation profiles of the MLH1 and MSH2 promotors were analysed. In addition, sperm motility and seminal reactive oxygen species (ROS) were recorded. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was conducted to determine the accuracy of the DNA methylation status of MLH1 and MSH2 to distinguish between oligozoospermic and normozoospermic men. In oligozoospermic men, MLH1 was significantly (p = .0013) more methylated compared to normozoospermic men. Additionally, there was a significant positive association (r = .384; p = .0159) between seminal ROS levels and MLH1 methylation. Contrary, no association between MSH2 methylation and oligozoospermia was found. ROC curve analysis for methylation status of MLH1 was significant (p = .0275) with an area under the curve of 61.1%, a sensitivity of 22.2% and a specificity of 100.0%. This pilot study indicates oligozoospermic patients have more methylation of MLH1 than normozoospermic patients. Whether hypermethylation of the MLH1 promoter plays a role in repairing relevant mismatches of sperm DNA strands in idiopathic oligozoospermia warrants further investigation

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO-Virgo Run O3b

We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC-2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: A generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

Narrowband Searches for Continuous and Long-duration Transient Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo Third Observing Run

Isolated neutron stars that are asymmetric with respect to their spin axis are possible sources of detectable continuous gravitational waves. This paper presents a fully coherent search for such signals from eighteen pulsars in data from LIGO and Virgo's third observing run (O3). For known pulsars, efficient and sensitive matched-filter searches can be carried out if one assumes the gravitational radiation is phase-locked to the electromagnetic emission. In the search presented here, we relax this assumption and allow both the frequency and the time derivative of the frequency of the gravitational waves to vary in a small range around those inferred from electromagnetic observations. We find no evidence for continuous gravitational waves, and set upper limits on the strain amplitude for each target. These limits are more constraining for seven of the targets than the spin-down limit defined by ascribing all rotational energy loss to gravitational radiation. In an additional search, we look in O3 data for long-duration (hours-months) transient gravitational waves in the aftermath of pulsar glitches for six targets with a total of nine glitches. We report two marginal outliers from this search, but find no clear evidence for such emission either. The resulting duration-dependent strain upper limits do not surpass indirect energy constraints for any of these targets. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h095%=3.47×10-25 when marginalizing over source inclination angle. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1, to date, that is specifically designed to be robust in the presence of spin wandering. © 2019 American Physical Society