The lessons from QE and other 'unconventional' monetary policies - evidence from the Bank of England

This paper investigates the effectiveness of the ‘quantitative easing’ policy, as implemented by the Bank of England in March 2009. Similar policies had been previously implemented in Japan, the U.S. and the Eurozone. The effectiveness is measured by the impact of Bank of England policies (including, but not limited to QE) on nominal GDP growth – the declared goal of the policy, according to the Bank of England. Unlike the majority of the literature on the topic, the general-to-specific econometric modeling methodology (a.k.a. the ‘Hendry’ or ‘LSE’ methodology) is employed for this purpose. The empirical analysis indicates that QE as defined and announced in March 2009 had no apparent effect on the UK economy. Meanwhile, it is found that a policy of ‘quantitative easing’ defined in the original sense of the term (Werner, 1994) is supported by empirical evidence: a stable relationship between a lending aggregate (disaggregated M4 lending, i.e. bank credit for GDP transactions) and nominal GDP is found. The findings imply that BoE policy should more directly target the growth of bank credit for GDP-transactions

Smooth and polyhedral approximation in Banach spaces

We show that norms on certain Banach spaces $X$ can be approximated uniformly, and with arbitrary precision, on bounded subsets of $X$ by $C^{\infty}$ smooth norms and polyhedral norms. In particular, we show that this holds for any equivalent norm on $c_0(\Gamma)$, where $\Gamma$ is an arbitrary set. We also give a necessary condition for the existence of a polyhedral norm on a weakly compactly generated Banach space, which extends a well-known result of Fonf.Comment: 12 page

Activity Theory Analysis of Heart Failure Self-Care

The management of chronic health conditions such as heart failure is a complex process emerging from the activity of a network of individuals and artifacts. This article presents an Activity Theory-based secondary analysis of data from a geriatric heart failure management study. Twenty-one patients' interviews and clinic visit observations were analyzed to uncover eight configurations of roles and activities involving patients, clinicians, and others in the sociotechnical network. For each configuration or activity pattern, we identify points of tension and propose guidelines for developing interventions for future computer-supported healthcare systems

Self-healing metallo-supramolecular hydrogel based on specific Ni2+ coordination interactions of poly(ethylene glycol) with bistriazole pyridine ligands in the main chain

In this study, a supramolecular hydrogel formed by incorporating the 2,6-bis(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)-pyridine (btp) ligand in the backbone of a polymer prepared by copper(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) "click" polyaddition reaction of 2,6-diethynylpyridine and diazido-poly(ethylene glycol) is reported. The hydrogelation is selectively triggered by the addition of Ni2+ ions to aqueous copolymer solutions. The gelation and rheological properties could be tuned by the change of metal to ligand ratio and polymer concentration. Interestingly, the hydrogel exhibits a fast (within 2 min) and excellent repeatable autonomic healing capacity without external stimuli. This self-healing behavior may find potential applications for the repairing of metal coatings, in the future

Bio-inspired hydrogels as multi-task anti-icing hydrogel coatings

In a recent report in Matter, Zhu, Wang, He and co-workers report a straightforward and effective strategy for the design of icephobic hydrogel coatings on the basis of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-grafted polyelectrolyte hydrogels. These passive anti-icing and de-icing coatings were demonstrated to synergistically suppress ice nucleation, ice propagation, and ice adhesion