Essays on Non-Traditional Activities in the Banking Industry

Starting in the 1980s, financial innovations and technology improvements led to important changes in corporate financing, primarily a significant decrease in the share of bank loans and an increased share of bonds and stocks. This change challenged the traditional banking business. The Gramm–Leach–Bliley (GLB) Act of 1999 allowed banks to engage more freely in non-traditional activities such as investment banking, venture capital, security brokerage, insurance underwriting, and asset securitization. Further, GLB encouraged changes in banks\u27 business models and income mix that were already underway. Chapter I shows an introduction of non-traditional activities. Chapter II examines the relationship between non-traditional activities, systemic risk, profitability and institutional ownership in the BHCs in the U.S.. The results show that the expansion of banking business scope does have significant impacts on bank\u27s systemic risk and profitability. The results also show that bank\u27s institutional ownership do have significant impacts on bank\u27s contribution on financial system. TARP was one of the most aggressive U.S government coordinated fiscal and monetary policy responses to a financial crisis since the Great Recession in the 1930s. Chapter III addresses the impacts of TARP injection on recipients\u27 non-traditional activities, performance, and insolvency risk between public and private, deadbeat repayment, and full repayment recipients. The results show that participating in TARP significantly, both statistically and economically, reduced the recipient\u27s ROA, suggesting that the TARP program is associated with lower performance as measured by ROA. While, the results also shows that the TARP program significantly, statistically and economically, reduces risk as measured by Z-Score, suggesting the TARP injection reduces the risk of a bank. From this perspective, TARP program achieves its objective to improve the capital adequacy. Finally, the analysis shows that the TARP program leads to a positive increase in stock returns of public banks, suggesting the positive impact of the TARP program on stabilizing the market and restoring investor\u27s market confidence, a major TARP objective as well

A self-assembling peptide RADA16-I integrated with spider fibroin uncrystalline motifs

Mechanical strength of nanofiber scaffolds formed by the self-assembling peptide RADA16-I or its derivatives is not very good and limits their application. To address this problem, we inserted spidroin uncrystalline motifs, which confer incomparable elasticity and hydrophobicity to spider silk GGAGGS or GPGGY, into the C-terminus of RADA16-I to newly design two peptides: R3 (n-RADARADARADARADA-GGAGGS-c) and R4 (n-RADARADARADARADA-GPGGY-c), and then observed the effect of these motifs on biophysical properties of the peptide. Atomic force microscopy, transmitting electron microscopy, and circular dichroism spectroscopy confirm that R3 and R4 display ß-sheet structure and self-assemble into long nanofibers. Compared with R3, the ß-sheet structure and nanofibers formed by R4 are more stable; they change to random coil and unordered aggregation at higher temperature. Rheology measurements indicate that novel peptides form hydrogel when induced by DMEM, and the storage modulus of R3 and R4 hydrogel is 0.5 times and 3 times higher than that of RADA16-I, respectively. Furthermore, R4 hydrogel remarkably promotes growth of liver cell L02 and liver cancer cell SMCC7721 compared with 2D culture, determined by MTT assay. Novel peptides still have potential as hydrophobic drug carriers; they can stabilize pyrene microcrystals in aqueous solution and deliver this into a lipophilic environment, identified by fluorescence emission spectra. Altogether, the spider fibroin motif GPGGY most effectively enhances mechanical strength and hydrophobicity of the peptide. This study provides a new method in the design of nanobiomaterials and helps us to understand the role of the amino acid sequence in nanofiber formation

In Vitro Regeneration of \u3ci\u3eRudbeckia hirta\u3c/i\u3e ‘Plainview Farm’ from Leaf Tissue

Rudbeckia hirta ‘Plainview Farm’, a new multiple-layered ray flowered cultivar, shows potential for potted plant production. After years of seed germination, this specific flower morphological trait was still unstable from generation to generation. To maintain its unique features, leaf sections (0.25 cm2 ) were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with either BA (0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 mg·L1 ), KIN (2.5, 5, or 10 mg·L-1 ), or ZT (0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 mg·L-1 )toinduce callus and microshoots. After cultivation for 33 days, all cytokinin treatments significantly induced callus and the callus size were 1.5- to-2.4-fold bigger than those withoutcytokinin. KIN at 2.5 mg·L-1 was the best treatment for callus induction and microshoot formation. Four microshoots per explant wereproduced at KIN of 2.5 mg·L-1 . For rooting, all induced microshoots were cultured on MS medium at its one-quarter strength containing either IBA or NAA at 0.5, 1.5, or 3.0 mg·L-1 . All microshoots formed roots at 0.5 or 1.5 mg·L-1 IBA, or 0.5 mg·L-1 NAA. There were no significant differences in number of roots per shoot and length of roots among treatments. The plantlets were transplanted, acclimated in a mist system, and grown in a greenhouse. A total of 96.4% of the plants derived from tissue culture had multiple layers of ray flowers, while only 9.6% of the plants from seed propagation did. Therefore, in vitro regeneration of R. hirta ‘Plainview Farm’ was a feasible way to rapidly produce uniform plants with multiple layers of ray flowers

Coverage-Guaranteed Sensor Node Deployment Strategies for Wireless Sensor Networks

Deployment quality and cost are two conflicting aspects in wireless sensor networks. Random deployment, where the monitored field is covered by randomly and uniformly deployed sensor nodes, is an appropriate approach for large-scale network applications. However, their successful applications depend considerably on the deployment quality that uses the minimum number of sensors to achieve a desired coverage. Currently, the number of sensors required to meet the desired coverage is based on asymptotic analysis, which cannot meet deployment quality due to coverage overestimation in real applications. In this paper, we first investigate the coverage overestimation and address the challenge of designing coverage-guaranteed deployment strategies. To overcome this problem, we propose two deployment strategies, namely, the Expected-area Coverage Deployment (ECD) and BOundary Assistant Deployment (BOAD). The deployment quality of the two strategies is analyzed mathematically. Under the analysis, a lower bound on the number of deployed sensor nodes is given to satisfy the desired deployment quality. We justify the correctness of our analysis through rigorous proof, and validate the effectiveness of the two strategies through extensive simulation experiments. The simulation results show that both strategies alleviate the coverage overestimation significantly. In addition, we also evaluate two proposed strategies in the context of target detection application. The comparison results demonstrate that if the target appears at the boundary of monitored region in a given random deployment, the average intrusion distance of BOAD is considerably shorter than that of ECD with the same desired deployment quality. In contrast, ECD has better performance in terms of the average intrusion distance when the invasion of intruder is from the inside of monitored region

Diagnosis of polymer processing equipment by using ultrasound

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Life expectancy inequalities between regions of China 2004–2020: contribution of age- and cause-specific mortality

BackgroundChina's rapid economic and social development since the early 2000s has caused significant shifts in its epidemiological transition, potentially leading to health disparities across regions.ObjectivesThis study employs Life Expectancy (LE) to assess health disparities and trends among China's eastern, central, and western regions. It also examines the pace of LE gains relative to empirical trends and investigates age and causes of death mortality improvement contributing to regional LE gaps.Data and methodsUsing a log-quadratic model, the study estimates LE in China and its regions from 2004 to 2020, using census and death cause surveillance data. It also utilizes the Human Mortality Database (HMD) and the LE gains by LE level approach to analyze China and its regions' LE gains in comparison to empirical trend of developed countries. The study investigates changes in LE gaps due to age and causes of death mortality improvements during two periods, 2004–2012 and 2012–2020, through the LE factor decomposition method.ResultsFrom 2000 to 2020, China's LE exhibited faster pace of gains compared to developed countries. While men's LE growth gradually aligns with empirical trends, women experience slightly higher growth rates. Regional LE disparities significantly reduced from 2004 to 2012, with a marginal reduction from 2012 to 2020. In the latter period, the changing LE gap aligns with expected trends in developed countries, with all Chinese regions surpassing empirical estimates. Cardiovascular diseases and malignant neoplasms emerged as the primary contributors to expanding regional LE gaps, with neurological disorders and diabetes playing an increasingly negative role.ConclusionLE disparities in China have consistently decreased, although at a slower pace in recent years, mirroring empirical trends. To further reduce regional LE disparities, targeted efforts should focus on improving mortality rates related to cardiovascular diseases, neoplasms, neurological disorders and diabetes, especially in the western region. Effective health interventions should prioritize equalizing basic public health services nationwide

Isolation of mouse mammary carcinoma-derived macrophages and cancer cells for co-culture assays

We recently established an in vitro co-culture system in which monophosphoryl lipid A + interferon-γ (MPLA+IFNγ)-treated tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) killed cancer cells. Here, we describe a step-by-step protocol for isolating TAMs and cancer cells from mouse primary mammary carcinomas, the setup of the co-culture system, and the image acquisition approach. The technical difficulties in the co-culture assay involve isolating pure TAMs and cancer cells from the same tumor and staining them with different dyes to track the macrophages’ tumoricidal activity. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Sun et al. (2021).(1