Cross-Border Debt Flows and Credit Allocation:Firm-Level Evidence from the Euro Area

This paper employs euro area firm-level data covering the years 2002–18 to examine the impact of cross-border debt flows on the domestic allocation of credit across firms conditional on their profitability. As only debt flows driven by global push factors are exogenous with respect to domestic credit allocation, I overcome the endogeneity of debt flows by instrumenting them with a measure of global uncertainty (VIX). My results show that debt flows raise the credit growth rates of low performing firms significantly more than those of high performing firms. This result is driven by domestic banking sectors with lower capitalization

Capital account liberalization and the composition of bank liabilities

Using a sample of almost 600 banks in Latin America, we show that capital account liberalization lowers the share of equity and raises the share of interbank funding in total liabilities of the consolidated banking system. These shifts are mostly due to large banks; smaller banks, instead, increase their resort to retail funding by offering higher average deposit interest rates than larger banks. We also find significant differences in the behavior of foreign banks and of banks with seemingly greater information opacity. These findings have positive implications for macro-prudential regulation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Method and Apparatus for Use of Beam Control Prisms with Diode Laser Arrays

The subject invention relates to beam control prisms and the use of a beam control prism to modify the beam properties of light emitted from an edge emitting diode laser. The subject invention can utilize a beam control prism placed next to a diode laser bar. The subject beam control prism can have, for example, a curved surface and/or a high reflective coated surface for a diode laser wavelength. The curved surface can collimate the fast axis divergence and the mirror surface can change the beam direction. The subject curved surface beam control prisms can incorporate one or more features, such as parabolic reflecting surface, elliptical exit surface with flat reflecting surface, and a hyperbolic entrance surface with flat reflecting surface

Capital Flows, Real Estate, and Local Cycles:Evidence from German Cities, Banks, and Firms

We study how capital flows affects German cities’ GDP growth depending on the state of their real estate markets. Identification exploits a policy framework assigning refugees to cities on a quasi-random basis and variation in nondevelopable area for the construction of an exposure measure to real estate market tightness. We estimate that the most exposed cities to real estate market tightness grew at least 1.9 percentage points more than the least exposed ones, cumulatively, from 2009 to 2014. Capital inflows shift credit to firms with more collateral, which leads firms to hire and invest more in response to these shocks

Developing a scale to measure problems in finding a good fit

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale for measuring perceived PFGF. This research conceptualized problems of finding a good fit (PFGF) as a consumer\u27s generalized perception of fit problems based on prior experience with physical, aesthetic, and functional aspects of clothing. Scale development took place through item generation, preliminary tests of reliability and validity, and final scale validation. This study contributes to the literature of consumer fit perceptions by developing a scale to assess perceived PFGF that may be a key factor influencing multiple apparel shopping behaviors, such as returning unsatisfactory products and online shopping conversion rate. The multidimensional scale of perceived PFGF should be useful to apparel product developers and designers by providing solutions to PFGF based on information from customers. Better understanding of perceived PFGF will ultimately increase consumer fit satisfaction

Insights on the trafficking and retro-translocation of glycosphingolipid-binding bacterial toxins

Some bacterial toxins and viruses have evolved the capacity to bind mammalian glycosphingolipids to gain access to the cell interior, where they can co-opt the endogenous mechanisms of cellular trafficking and protein translocation machinery to cause toxicity. Cholera toxin (CT) is one of the best-studied examples, and is the virulence factor responsible for massive secretory diarrhea seen in cholera. CT enters host cells by binding to monosialotetrahexosylganglioside (GM1 gangliosides) at the plasma membrane where it is transported retrograde through the trans-Golgi network (TGN) into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In the ER, a portion of CT, the CT-A1 polypeptide, is unfolded and then “retro-translocated” to the cytosol by hijacking components of the ER associated degradation pathway (ERAD) for misfolded proteins. CT-A1 rapidly refolds in the cytosol, thus avoiding degradation by the proteasome and inducing toxicity. Here, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of how the bacterial AB5 toxins induce disease. We highlight the molecular mechanisms by which these toxins use glycosphingolipid to traffic within cells, with special attention to how the cell senses and sorts the lipid receptors. We also discuss several new studies that address the mechanisms of toxin unfolding in the ER and the mechanisms of CT A1-chain retro-translocation to the cytosol

Enhancing the Intelligibility of Speech in Speech Noise

A brief introduction to a proposed project on integrating different source separation techniques to improve intelligibility resulting from speech separation from interfering speech