Becoming more connected to the financial human capitalnetwork may hold the key to improving wage inequality withinthe US finance industry

In an era of stagnant wages for the middle-classes, the financial services industry continues to be very well remunerated, especially in large cities. But to what extent does city-size drive wage inequalities? In new research that tracks the movement of over 20,000 skilled financial workers across 264 US cities between 2007 and 2011, Kuo Siong (Gordon) Tan constructs a financial human capital network. He finds that the network contains 40 financial hubs, which are linked to higher wages. He writes that rather than being a direct function of city size, wage inequality may be more pronounced between cities that are highly networked and those that are not

The ‘fintech revolution’ is here! The disruptive impact of fintech on retail financial practices

Fintech is celebrated for its disruptive and democratizing qualities that dis/reintermediates the finance value chain. Claims of a ‘fintech revolution’ assume that fintech is ‘disruptive’ because of its innovative capabilities, but the extent to which these disruptive forces have reconfigured consumer financial knowledge and practices is not well understood. Using a questionnaire to survey retail consumers in Singapore on their use of fintech in performing different financial tasks, this article critically examines these claims of disruption and democratization by grounding them in the financial behaviors of consumers as informed by a financial ecologies approach. The results show a limited impact of fintech in shaping consumer financial behaviors. Respondents use fintech mainly for basic transactional purposes like making mobile payments and account management, but not so much for more complex matters like savings, investing and credit. The findings also reveal a ‘stickiness’ in financial behaviors that emphasizes the high touch points of human interaction. This study illustrates fintech’s variegated material outcomes by highlighting the unevenness in consumption of digital financial services and the enduring importance of human relationality in financial decision making

A Method for Planning the Transportation Route of Fresh Agricultural Products Based on Ant Colony Algorithm

The current fresh agricultural product transportation route planning matrix is generally set in a single form, resulting in low path planning efficiency and increased path transportation time. Therefore, the design and analysis of a fresh agricultural product transportation route planning method based on the ant colony algorithm is proposed in this paper. The optimal path problem and planning nodes are described based on actual planning needs and standards. A multi-objective form is adopted to improve path planning efficiency, and a multi-objective optimal planning matrix and ant colony calculation line planning model are designed. Based on this, path planning processing is implemented using time and space route correction. The test results show that compared to the traditional CiteSpace fresh agricultural product transportation route planning test group and the traditional improved genetic algorithm fresh agricultural product transportation route planning test group, a better control of the path transportation time within 150 minutes is achieved by the ant colony algorithm fresh agricultural product transportation route planning test group designed this time. This indicates that the designed transportation route is considered the optimal route. Furthermore, after research, it was found that the arrival times of the six selected delivery points were all before the expected earliest arrival time, suggesting that this planning method has greater effectiveness and practical application value

Contracts for Interacting Two-Party Systems

This article deals with the interrelation of deontic operators in contracts -- an aspect often neglected when considering only one of the involved parties. On top of an automata-based semantics we formalise the onuses that obligations, permissions and prohibitions on one party impose on the other. Such formalisation allows for a clean notion of contract strictness and a derived notion of contract conflict that is enriched with issues arising from party interdependence.Comment: In Proceedings FLACOS 2012, arXiv:1209.169

Experimental and Theoretical Study of Oxygen Insertion into Trialkylsilanes by Methyltrioxorhenium Catalyst

Among the reactions of hydrogen peroxide that are catalyzed by methyltrioxorhenium, the oxidation of alkylsilanes is unique. It is not a reaction in which an oxygen atom is added to a substrate, but one featuring a net insertion, R3Si−H + H2O2 → R3Si−OH + H2O. Kinetics studies were carried out on 10 compounds. Rate constant were determined for the bimolecular reaction of the silane with the peroxo compound CH3Re(O)(η2-O2)2(H2O). The variation of rate constant with the alkyl groups R follows two trends:  the values of log(k) are linear functions of (a) the stretching frequency of the Si−H group and (b) the total Taft constant for these substituents. The reactions of (n-Bu)3Si−H and (n-Bu)3Si−D exhibit a kinetic isotope effect of 2.1 at 0 °C. From these data, a model for the transition state was formulated in which O−H and Si−O bond making accompany Si−H bond breaking. Quantum mechanical calculations have been carried out on the gas-phase reaction between Et3SiH and CH3Re(O)2(η2-O2). These results support this structure, calculating a structure and energy that are in agreement. The theoretical activation energy is 28.5 kcal mol-1, twice the experimental value in aqueous acetonitrile, 12.4 kcal mol-1. The difference can be attributed to the solvation of the polar transition state in this medium

MEMS 411: Dressmaker Sewing Pin Dispenser

This report describes the development of a sewing pin dispenser designed for Dritz dressmaker pins. These pins have a much smaller head than normal sewing pins so devices on the market do not work for them. Furthermore devices with similar functions such as toothpick dispensers were not effective as the orientation of dispensed pins is critical for easy use and to prevent pricked fingers

Stochastic Constrained Extended System Dynamics for Solving Charge Equilibration Models

We present a new stochastic extended Lagrangian solution to charge equilibration that eliminates self-consistent field (SCF) calculations, eliminating the computational bottleneck in solving the many-body solution with standard SCF solvers. By formulating both charges and chemical potential as latent variables, and introducing a holonomic constraint that satisfies charge conservation, the SC-XLMD method accurately reproduces structural, thermodynamic, and dynamics properties using ReaxFF, and shows excellent weak- and strong-scaling performance in the LAMMPS molecular simulation package