Basel II, External Ratings and Adverse Selection

This paper will describe and analyse the development of Basel II Capital Accord and will focus on the use of external ratings in the Standardized Approach in Basel II. Furthermore it will examine the problem of adverse selection which appears in Basel II as a result from the proposal for the use of external ratings in determining the risk weights in the standardized approach. The paper will also attempt to find possible solutions to the adverse selection problem by discussing two similar models, and derive implications from them.Basel II, external ratings, adverse selection, rating agencies, standardized approach

Copepod feeding strategy determines response to seawater viscosity: videography study of two calanoid copepod species

Author Posting. © Company of Biologists, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of Company of Biologists for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental Biology (2020): jeb.220830, doi: 10.1242/jeb.220830.Calanoid copepods, depending on feeding strategy, have different behavioral and biological controls on their movements, thereby responding differently to environmental conditions such as changes in seawater viscosity. To understand how copepod responses to environmental conditions are mediated through physical, physiological, and/or behavioral pathways, we used high-speed microvideography to compare two copepod species, Acartia hudsonica and Parvocalanus crassirostris, under different temperature, viscosity, and dietary conditions. Acartia hudsonica exhibited “sink and wait” feeding behavior and typically responded to changes in seawater viscosity; increased seawater viscosity reduced particle-capture behavior and decreased the size of the feeding current. In contrast, P. crassirostris continuously swam and did not show any behavioral or physical responses to changes in viscosity. Both species showed a physiological response to temperature, with reduced appendage beating frequency at cold temperatures, but this did not generally translate into effects on swimming speed, feeding flux, or active time. Both copepod species swam slower when feeding on diatom rather than dinoflagellate prey, showing that prey type mediates copepod behavior. These results differentiate species-specific behaviors and responses to environmental conditions, which may lead to better understanding of niche separation and latitudinal patterns in copepod feeding and movement strategies.This study was supported by the National Science Foundation [OCE1634024 to N.F.; OCE-1433979 and OCE-1559062 to H.J.]; and by Stony Brook University [Graduate Council Fellowship and Turner Fellowship to A.S.T].2021-06-1

Locomotor adaptation is influenced by the interaction between perturbation and baseline asymmetry after stroke.

Stroke survivors without cerebellar involvement retain the ability to adapt to the split-belt treadmill; however it has been suggested that their rate of adaptation may be slowed compared to those who are neurologically intact. Depending on limb placement, the split-belt treadmill can be configured to either exaggerate baseline asymmetry, or reduce it, which may affect the behavior of adaptation or de-adaptation. The objectives of this study were to characterize the rate and magnitude of locomotor (de)adaptation in chronic stroke survivors compared to healthy matched subjects, and to evaluate whether exaggeration or reduction of baseline asymmetry impact the responses. Seventeen stroke survivors and healthy subjects completed 10min of split-belt treadmill walking, then 5min of tied-belt walking. Stroke survivors completed this once with each leg on the fast belt. Magnitude and rate of (de)adaptation were evaluated for step length and limb phase asymmetry. There were no differences between the groups with the exception of the reduced step length asymmetry configuration, in which case there was a significantly reduced magnitude (p≤0.000) and rate (p=0.011) of adaptation when compared to controls. There was a similar trend observed during post-adaptation for the exaggerated asymmetry group. The rate and magnitude of locomotor (de)adaptation is similar between chronic stroke survivors and neurologically intact controls, except when the adaptation or de-adaptation response would take the stroke survivors away from a symmetric step length pattern. This suggests that there may be some benefit to symmetry that is recognized by the system

Meeting the design challenges of nano-CMOS electronics: an introduction to an upcoming EPSRC pilot project

The years of ‘happy scaling’ are over and the fundamental challenges that the semiconductor industry faces, at both technology and device level, will impinge deeply upon the design of future integrated circuits and systems. This paper provides an introduction to these challenges and gives an overview of the Grid infrastructure that will be developed as part of a recently funded EPSRC pilot project to address them, and we hope, which will revolutionise the electronics design industry

A systematic review of the quality of reporting of interventions in the surgical treatment of Crohn’s anal fistula : an assessment using the TIDiER and Blencowe frameworks

Background Crohn’s anal fistula is a challenging condition, and may require multiple surgical procedures. To replicate successful procedures, these must be adequately reported in the literature. The aim of this study was to review the quality of reporting of components of surgical interventions for Crohn’s anal fistula. Methods A systematic review was conducted. It was registered with PROSPERO (CRD:42019135157). The Medline and EMBASE databases were searched for studies reporting interventions intended to close fistula in patients with Crohn’s disease, published between 1999 and August 2019. Abstracts and full texts were screened for inclusion by two reviewers. Dual extraction of data was performed to compare reporting to the TIDiER and Blencowe frameworks for reporting of interventions. Results Initial searches identified 207 unique studies; 38 full texts were screened for inclusion and 33 were included. The most common study design was retrospective cohort (17/33), and the most frequently reported interventions were anal fistula plug (n = 8) and fibrin glue (n = 6). No studies showed coverage of all domains of TIDieR. Reporting was poor among domains related to who provided an intervention, where it was provided, and how it was tailored. Reporting of domains in the Blencowe framework was poor; the majority of studies did not report the component steps of procedures or efforts to standardise them. Conclusions This study demonstrates that reporting on technical aspects of interventions for Crohn’s anal fistula is poor. Surgeons should aim to improve reporting to allow accurate reproduction of techniques both in clinical practice and in clinical trials

Basel II, External Ratings and Adverse Selection

This paper will describe and analyse the development of Basel II Capital Accord and will focus on the use of external ratings in the Standardized Approach in Basel II. Furthermore it will examine the problem of adverse selection which appears in Basel II as a result from the proposal for the use of external ratings in determining the risk weights in the standardized approach. The paper will also attempt to find possible solutions to the adverse selection problem by discussing two similar models, and derive implications from them

Low Friction Flows of Liquids at Nanopatterned Interfaces

With the recent important development of microfluidic systems, miniaturization of flow devices has become a real challenge. Microchannels, however, are characterized by a large surface to volume ratio, so that surface properties strongly affect flow resistance in submicrometric devices. We present here results showing that the concerted effect of wetting . properties and surface roughness may considerably reduce friction of the fluid past the boundaries. The slippage of the fluid at the channel boundaries is shown to be drastically increased by using surfaces that are patterned at the nanometer scale. This effect occurs in the regime where the surface pattern is partially dewetted, in the spirit of the 'superhydrophobic' effects that have been recently discovered at the macroscopic scales. Our results show for the first time that, in contrast to the common belief, surface friction may be reduced by surface roughness. They also open the possibility of a controlled realization of the 'nanobubbles' that have long been suspected to play a role in interfacial slippag

Illusory perceptions of space and time preserve cross-saccadic perceptual continuity

When voluntary saccadic eye movements are made to a silently ticking clock, observers sometimes think that the second hand takes longer than normal to move to its next position. For a short period, the clock appears to have stopped (chronostasis). Here we show that the illusion occurs because the brain extends the percept of the saccadic target backwards in time to just before the onset of the saccade. This occurs every time we move the eyes but it is only perceived when an external time reference alerts us to the phenomenon. The illusion does not seem to depend on the shift of spatial attention that accompanies the saccade. However, if the target is moved unpredictably during the saccade, breaking perception of the target's spatial continuity, then the illusion disappears. We suggest that temporal extension of the target's percept is one of the mechanisms that 'fill in' the perceptual 'gap' during saccadic suppression. The effect is critically linked to perceptual mechanisms that identify a target's spatial stability

Basel II, External Ratings and Adverse Selection

This paper will describe and analyse the development of Basel II Capital Accord and will focus on the use of external ratings in the Standardized Approach in Basel II. Furthermore it will examine the problem of adverse selection which appears in Basel II as a result from the proposal for the use of external ratings in determining the risk weights in the standardized approach. The paper will also attempt to find possible solutions to the adverse selection problem by discussing two similar models, and derive implications from them