Resolving the National Banking System note-issue puzzle

Under the National Banking System, 1863-1914, national banks that deposited sufficient collateral could issue notes provided they paid a tax on notes in circulation: 1 percent per year before 1900 and 1/2 percent thereafter. Because note issue was far below the allowed maximum, an arbitrage argument predicts that short-term nominal interest rates should have been bounded above by the tax rate. They were not. That is the note-issue puzzle. Our resolution takes the form of a model in which notes play a role, but in which the profitability of note issue is not tied to anything that resembles a market rate of interest.Bank notes ; National banks (United States)

Computer aided religious learning in a secular context

The CD-ROM opens up the possibility of a new approach to religious learning which is particularly relevant to secular contexts. This thesis arises from the question of how a public education system may respond appropriately to the religious dimension of life in a plural society. Three main issues are considered: the nature of religious learning, the ethical legitimacy of its provision in a secular context, and the feasibility of using computers to assist in this learning. These issues are brought together in an experimental study conducted across nine local authority primary schools in one Region of Scotland.Contemporary religious education in Scottish schools is set against its distinctive historical background. Principal arguments connected with its theory and practice are discussed, and a review is undertaken of what religion means today. The case for the primacy of religious studies in schools is rejected and religious learning, understood as world view formation, is proposed as both ethically acceptable and necessary for a fully developed secular education. The relevant legislation as well as data collected from the study both advance the argument that non-denominational does not equate easily with religious, and might more appropriately be considered secular. It is in this context of uncertainty about religious matters that the power of the interactive CD-ROM has a special place.An original paradigm for world view analysis is proposed and discussed. From this paradigm is derived a personal profiling instrument which is used to map the world views of a normal sample of 808 children in the 9-12 years age range. These personal world views are seen to have no statistically significant association with the subjects' experiences of religion and attitudes to it. At the same time as generally valuing moral behaviour, subjects appear to value religion less the more they know about it. As might be expected, girls are seen to value caring more than justice, and boys justice more than caring. Girls, however, also value justice more than boys.The paradigm also generated the conceptual framework for the CD-ROM whose development is described and trial evaluated. Little doubt remains about the feasibility of an interactive programme to aid religious learning, but its effectiveness is not fully established in this study; several contributory factors external to the CD-ROM are identified. Those taking part in the trial amplified the effect already identified of simultaneously knowing more and caring less about religion. This result reinforces doubts about the current focus on religious traditions in the school's religious and moral education curriculum. The thesis is thought to have been satisfied in all essentials, and the need to review the direction now being taken in non-denominational religious and moral education is the main conclusion drawn

Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Unemployment Insurance from New York State

This paper examines unemployment duration and the incidence of claims following a 36 percent increase in the maximum weekly benefit in New York State. This benefit increase sharply increased benefits for a large group of claimants, while leaving them unchanged for a large share of claimants who provide a natural comparison group. The New York benefit increase has the special features that it was unexpected and applied to in-progress spells. These features allow the effects on duration to be convincingly separated from effects on incidence. The results show a sharp fall in the hazard of leaving UI that coincides with the increase in benefits. The evidence is also consistent with a substantial effect of the benefit level on the incidence of claims and with this change in incidence biasing duration estimates. The evidence further suggests that, at least in this case, standard methods that identify duration effects through nonlinearities in the benefit schedule are not badly biased.

Structural studies in the northern Chester Dome of East-Central Vermont

Rocks in the Eastern Vermont Sequence are highly metamorphosed and are said to range in age from Precambrian to Siluro-Devonian. The sequence outcrops on Keyes Mountain, about 6km Northwest of Felchville, Vermont, and an area on this mountain about 2km square was mapped in great detail. The dominant rock type found is quartzofeldspathic gneiss, but schistose gneiss, amphibolite, quartzite and schist also occur. Most of these rocks are layered but layering has been transposed in many places and much of it is probably secondary. Layering and schistosity both dip dominantly to the north at about 25º. A number of mesoscopic structures can be mapped, including folds, schistosity, lineations, boudinage and low-angle dislocations. Folds can be divided into three style groups - S.G. 1 : tight to isoclinal folds in layering with no axial-surface foliation. - S.G. 2 : open to isoclinal folds in layering and schistosity with weakly to strongly developed axial-surface foliation. - S.G. 3 : open to tight folds in layering and schistosity with no axial-surface foliation. Axial surfaces are usually at a high angle to foliation. On the basis of overprinting relationships, at least three generations of folds exist. First and second generations cannot be separated by style and are referred to as early folds ; most early folds are isoclinal. The third generation includes all S.G. 3 folds, although it is possible that more than one generation is present in S.G. 3. They are therefore referred to as late folds . Mesoscopic late folds plunge dominantly at 25º to 030, their axial surfaces dip steeply to the west. A large, open macroscopic late fold occupies the whole area and is probably similarly oriented to mesoscopic late folds. Mesoscopic early fold axes are redistributed on a partial small circle by late folding but are inferred to have had a strong preferred orientation in the foliation plane before this event. Evidence offered by previous workers for the interpretation of the Chester and other domes in Eastern Vermont as Christmas Tree folds is considered to be inadequate. An alternative model involving refolding of early folds by doubly-plunging late folds is favoured. Five units with boundaries parallel to schistosity were delineated, each with distinctive lithologic and structural characteristics. The structurally highest and lowest both fit published descriptions of basement. The central three units are characterised structurally by widespread transposition, intensely developed schistosity, and an abundance of low angle dislocations, boudinage and isoclinal folds. They are interpreted as a dislocation zone across which large relative displacements may have occured. The stratigraphic formations mapped by previous workers could not be recognized in this area ; all unit boundaries are thought to be structural ones and each unit is probably a structural rather than a stratigraphic entity. It is possible that this is true of other stratigraphic formations and boundaries in the Eastern Vermont sequence

Characterization of Optical Frequency Transfer Over 154 km of Aerial Fiber

We present measurements of the frequency transfer stability and analysis of the noise characteristics of an optical signal propagating over aerial suspended fiber links up to 153.6 km in length. The measured frequency transfer stability over these links is on the order of 10^-11 at an integration time of one second dropping to 10^-12 for integration times longer than 100 s. We show that wind-loading of the cable spans is the dominant source of short-timescale noise on the fiber links. We also report an attempt to stabilize the optical frequency transfer over these aerial links.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Optics Letter

Studies on the etiology, pathology, and control of guinea pig lymphadenitis

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1962 W8

Affinity of Arctomeles dimolodontus and other Old-World Badgers (Melinae: Mustelidae: Carnivora)

Mustelids, members of the weasel family, are the most species rich and ecologically diverse family within the order Carnivora. However, fossil mustelids are poorly understood due to their rarity in the fossil record. Fossils of “Eurasian” badgers in particular, subfamily Melinae, only include three stem and two crown genera: Arctomeles, Arctonyx, Ferinestrix, Meles, and Melodon. Today, melines are restricted to the Old World, but fossils of stem taxa have also been discovered in North America. Here, I discuss the occurrence of the fossil meline Arctomeles dimolodontus currently known only from the Gray Fossil Site of East Tennessee, USA, and its phylogenetic position within stem Melinae. A total of 34 dental characters across 8 taxa were selected because some taxa, such as Arctomeles sotnikovae and Ferinestrix vorax, are known only from teeth (or cranial fragments). A search of all possible trees using PAUP (set for maximum parsimony) yielded a single most parsimonious tree. Topology of that tree suggests that Ferinestrix is nested within crown group Melinae, rather than the stem group, and is the sister to extant Arctonyx, the hog badger. Results also suggest that Arctomeles sotnikovae does not group within the monophyletic clade formed by A. dimolodontus and A. pliocaenicus, but instead nests A. sotnikovae as a closely related, but separate, lineage to Melodon. Based on these findings, we propose that the ancestral stock of crown Melinae is more closely related to Arctomeles than Meles as previous research has suggested. Furthermore, the dental morphology within stem Melinae is relatively conservative for a generalized diet, although exceptions exist in some derived forms, such as Arctonyx and Ferinestrix, which may explain why PAUP nested the two as sister taxa. Arctonyx is an exclusively Old-World lineage, so it is likely that the Arctonyx-Ferinestrix clade had an Old-World origin, after which Ferinestrix migrated into North America and Arctonyx remained in the Old World. This begs the question: why do some melines migrate into North America while other contemporary forms do not? All stem meline genera have occurrences from Eurasia, yet only Arctomeles and Ferinestrix are known to have migrated into North America. This is likely because of the environmental constraints on where these different genera can live, but much remains unknown about the ecology of fossil melines to know for certain. Further study of this disparity can lead to a greater understanding of how the earth’s climate has changed since the Neogene and how this change impacts flora and fauna

The implementation of overdose prevention sites as a novel and nimble response during an illegal drug overdose public health emergency

Background Drug-related overdoses were declared a public health emergency in British Columbia, Canada in April, 2016 facilitating the scale-up of responses including rapid sanctioning and implementation of overdose prevention sites (OPSs). OPSs are a health service providing supervised injection and immediate overdose response. In BC, OPSs were operational within weeks of sanctioning. In the first year of operation over 20 OPSs were established with approximately 550,000 visits and no overdose deaths at any site. In this paper, we examine the implementation of OPSs as a novel and nimble response to prevent overdose deaths as a result of injection drug use. Methods A multiple case study design was used with the Consolidated Framework for Implementation (CFIR) informing the analysis. Three sites in a single city were included with each site constituting a case. In this paper, we focus on qualitative interviews with 15 staff and their perceptions of the implementation of the OPSs as well as provincial and local documents. Results The legislative process to implement OPSs was unprecedented as it sanctioned supervised injection services as an extraordinary measure under a declared public health emergency. Innovative and inclusionary practices were possible within state-sanctioned OPSs, as the sites were government-directed yet community-developed, with PWUD centred in service design, implementation and delivery. OPSs lack permanency and may be limited to the duration of the public health emergency. Conclusion The rapid implementation of OPSs provides an international example of an alternative to lengthy and often onerous sanctioning processes for supervised consumption services (SCSs). Overdose prevention sites provide an example of a novel service design and nimble implementation process that combines the benefits of state-sanctioned injection services with community-driven implementation. Such evidence questions the continued acceptability of governments’ restrictive sanctioning processes, which have limited expansion of SCSs internationally and the implementation of services that are not necessarily aligned with the needs of PWUD

Control of biodegradation of a Mg alloy in simulated body fluid

Mg alloy AZ31 is an attractive candidate for coronary artery stents, as it possesses excellent biocompatibility in human body and good mechanical properties. However, AZ31 magnesium alloys generally have poor corrosion resistance in the body environment. This paper reports on the early stages of an investigation into the corrosion mechanism and the morphology of corrosion of AZ31 in simulated body fluid (SBF). The investigation will also consider ways of improving corrosion resistance of this alloy in SBF through the use of ionic liquids. The results to date have shown that AZ31 suffers severe localized pitting corrosion in SBF. The pits mainly develop adjacent to the Al-Mn intermetallic second phase in the α matrix. Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy results revealed the presence of Mg, O, Ca, and P in the layer of corrosion product. Treatment of the AZ31 alloy prior to corrosion testing in SBF with the ionic liquid trimethyl (butyl) phosphonium diphenyl phosphate (P1444DPP) produced some increase in the corrosion resistance of the alloy