4,302 research outputs found
A critique of full reserve banking
Proposals for full reserve banking have been put forward as a radical way of preventing further financial crises. They rest on the argument that crises are caused by excessive money supply growth brought about by inadequately controlled bank credit creation. Our aim is to provide a critique of the theoretical assumptions underlying the plans for full reserve banking. In particular some of the plans rely on the view that the money supply is a key causal variable and that it is feasible for central banks to identify and enforce an optimal quantity. Second, the plans all rely on an unsupported confidence in the efficiency of financial markets outside the centrally controlled banking system. Third, by removing profit-making opportunities from banks, the proposals may unduly tip the balance further in favour of shadow banking. Finally, as the case of 95% liquidity requirements on Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander in the wake of the Great Financial Crash shows that modern financial engineering makes such policy-making difficult to execute. A Minskyan analysis rather emphasises the inherent instability of the financial system such that it is subject to systemic crises and the indeterminacy of demand for liquidity, while also emphasising the contribution prudent banking can make to financing economic activity and providing a safe money asset. While a return to a traditional separation of retail banking (regulated and supported by the central bank) from investment banking (regulated differently but not supported) would contribute to financial stability, it is argued that the full reserve banking proposals go too far
A class of well-posed parabolic final value problems
This paper focuses on parabolic final value problems, and well-posedness is
proved for a large class of these. The clarification is obtained from Hilbert
spaces that characterise data that give existence, uniqueness and stability of
the solutions. The data space is the graph normed domain of an unbounded
operator that maps final states to the corresponding initial states. It induces
a new compatibility condition, depending crucially on the fact that analytic
semigroups always are invertible in the class of closed operators. Lax--Milgram
operators in vector distribution spaces constitute the main framework. The
final value heat conduction problem on a smooth open set is also proved to be
well posed, and non-zero Dirichlet data are shown to require an extended
compatibility condition obtained by adding an improper Bochner integral.Comment: 16 pages. To appear in "Applied and numerical harmonic analysis"; a
reference update. Conference contribution, based on arXiv:1707.02136, with
some further development
Selective cooling of the brain in reindeer
Selective cooling of the brain during hyper-thermia has been demonstrated in several species of mammals (Baker 1979, 1982). Such cooling is achieved by heat exchange between the cooled venous blood returning from the nasal mucosa and the warmer arterial blood entering the brain via the carotid rete. Spot measurements of brain temperature (Tbr) and carotid blood temperature (TCar) were made within 1 min. of death in 40 wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus). At Tear lower than 40.5°C Tbr was higher than T c a r. With increasing Tear above 40.5°C Tbr remained at approxima-tely 40.5°C, indicating that selective cooling of the brain had occurred
No alignment of cattle along geomagnetic field lines found
This paper presents a study of the body orientation of domestic cattle on
free pastures in several European states, based on Google satellite
photographs. In sum, 232 herds with 3412 individuals were evaluated. Two
independent groups participated in our study and came to the same conclusion
that, in contradiction to the recent findings of other researchers, no
alignment of the animals and of their herds along geomagnetic field lines could
be found. Several possible reasons for this discrepancy should be taken into
account: poor quality of Google satellite photographs, difficulties in
determining the body axis, selection of herds or animals within herds, lack of
blinding in the evaluation, possible subconscious bias, and, most importantly,
high sensitivity of the calculated main directions of the Rayleigh vectors to
some kind of bias or to some overlooked or ignored confounder. This factor
could easily have led to an unsubstantiated positive conclusion about the
existence of magnetoreception.Comment: Added electronic supplement with source dat
Toughening mechanisms in novel nano-silica epoxy polymers
A crosslinked epoxy polymer has been modified by the addition of nano-silica particles. The particles were introduced via a sol-gel technique which gave a very well dispersed phase of nanosilica particles which were about 20 nm in diameter. The glass transition temperature was unchanged by the addition of the nano-particles, but both the modulus and toughness were increased. The fracture energy increased from 100 J/m2 for the unmodified epoxy to 460 J/m2 for the epoxy with 13 vol% of nano-silica. The microscopy studies showed evidence of debonding of the nano-particles and subsequent plastic void growth of the epoxy polymer. A theoretical model of plastic void growth was used to confirm this mechanism
The association between symptoms and exposure is stronger in dropouts than in non-dropouts among employees in Norwegian smelters: a five-year follow-up study
Investigating the implications of CFTR exon skipping using a Cftr exon 9 deleted mouse model
Introduction: Severity and disease progression in people with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is typically dependent on their genotype. One potential therapeutic strategy for people with specific mutations is exon skipping with antisense oligonucleotides (AO). CFTR exon 9 is an in-frame exon and hence the exclusion of this exon would excise only 31 amino acids but not alter the reading frame of the remaining mRNA. Splice mutations 1209 + 1 G > C and 1209 + 2 T > G were documented to cause CFTR exon 9 skipping and these variants were reported to manifest as a milder CF disease, therefore exon 9 skipping could be beneficial for people with class I mutations that affect exon 9 such as p.Trp401X. While the impact of exon 9 skipping on gene expression and cellular pathways can be studied in cells in vitro, trace amount of full-length normal or mutated material could confound the evaluation. To overcome this limitation, the impact of CFTR exon 9 skipping on disease phenotype and severity is more effectively evaluated in a small animal model. It was hypothesised that antisense oligonucleotide-mediated skipping this particular exon could result in a âmild mouse CF phenotypeâ.
Methods: Cftr exon 9 deleted mice were generated using homologous recombination. Survival of homozygous (CftrÎ9/Î9) and heterozygous (CftrÎ9/+) mice was compared to that of other CF mouse models, and lung and intestinal organ histology examined for any pathologies. Primary airway epithelial cells (pAECs) were harvested from CftrÎ9/Î9 mice and cultured at the Air Liquid Interface for CFTR functional assessment using Ussing Chamber analysis.
Results: A CftrÎ9/Î9 mouse model presented with intestinal obstructions, and at time of weaning (21 days). CftrÎ9/Î9 mice had a survival rate of 83% that dropped to 38% by day 50. Histological sections of the small intestine from CftrÎ9/Î9 mice showed more goblet cells and mucus accumulation than samples from the CftrÎ9/+ littermates. Airway epithelial cell cultures established from CftrÎ9/Î9 mice were not responsive to forskolin stimulation.
Summary: The effect of Cftr exon 9 deletion on Cftr function was assessed and it was determined that the encoded Cftr isoform did not result in a milder âmouse CF disease phenotype,â suggesting that Cftr exon 9 is not dispensable, although further investigation in human CF pAECs would be required to confirm this observation
Spin-dynamic field coupling in strongly THz driven semiconductors : local inversion symmetry breaking
We study theoretically the optics in undoped direct gap semiconductors which
are strongly driven in the THz regime. We calculate the optical sideband
generation due to nonlinear mixing of the THz field and the near infrared
probe. Starting with an inversion symmetric microscopic Hamiltonian we include
the THz field nonperturbatively using non-equilibrium Green function
techniques. We find that a self induced relativistic spin-THz field coupling
locally breaks the inversion symmetry, resulting in the formation of odd
sidebands which otherwise are absent.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
THE CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF NORMANDITE AND ITS CRYSTAL-CHEMICAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH LAVENITE
Excitonic Dynamical Franz-Keldysh Effect
The Dynamical Franz-Keldysh Effect is exposed by exploring near-bandgap
absorption in the presence of intense THz electric fields. It bridges the gap
between the DC Franz- Keldysh effect and multi-photon absorption and competes
with the THz AC Stark Effect in shifting the energy of the excitonic resonance.
A theoretical model which includes the strong THz field non-perturbatively via
a non-equilibrium Green Functions technique is able to describe the Dynamical
Franz-Keldysh Effect in the presence of excitonic absorption.Comment: 4 pages in revtex with 5 figures included using epsf. Submitted to
Physical Review Letter
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