From trade to terror: how global banks impact local economies

This thesis investigates three aspects of global banks that go beyond their textbook understanding as lenders and deposit-takers. Using export data from emerging Europe, the first chapter shows that when local banks lose correspondent banking services, their corporate clients reduce exports, leading to decreased revenues and employment. The second chapter investigates the impact of organ trafficking on local conflict. By exploiting exogenous variation in kidney demand from the US waiting list for kidneys, I find that higher US kidney demand increases conflict in localities with a transplanting hospital in countries known for illegal organ trafficking. Based on data from the German credit register and proprietary supervisory information, the third chapter first observes that banks lend more to banks that are similar to them. It then shows how a similar portfolio of the lending and borrowing bank helps overcome information asymmetries in interbank markets

Mask Projection Microstereolithography of Novel Biocompatible Polymers

Mask Projection Microstereolithography (MPμSL) selectively cures entire layers of photopolymer to create three-dimensional parts with features on the micron scale. The resolution and scale of MPμSL are ideal for fabricating tissue engineering scaffolds with designed mesostructure. While MPμSL have excellent resolution, there are few biocompatible materials that are compatible with the vat photopolymerization processes. A novel diacrylate functionalized Pluronic L-31 block-copolymer and poly(propylene glycol diacrylate) were synthesized and processed with MPμSL. The resulting structures were analyzed for biocompatibility, as well as accuracy and mechanical strength to assess feasibility for use in tissue engineering scaffold fabrication. Preliminary fabricated scaffold geometries are presented to validate experimental results.Mechanical Engineerin

Global payment disruptions and firm-level exports

We exploit proprietary information on severed correspondent banking relationships — due to the stricter enforcement of financial crime regulation — to assess how payment disruptions impede cross-border trade. Using firm-level export data from emerging Europe, we show that when local respondent banks lose access to correspondent banking services, their corporate borrowers start to export less. This trade decline occurs on both the extensive and intensive margins and firms do not substitute foregone exports with higher domestic sales. As a result, total firm revenues and employment shrink. These findings highlight an often overlooked function of global banks: providing the payment infrastructure that enables firms in less-developed countries to export to richer parts of the world

How the withdrawal of global correspondent banks hurts Emerging Europe

Correspondent banks allow local banks in emerging markets to access the international payments system. This helps local banks to make cross-border payments, clear currencies, and provide trade finance. The recent retrenchment of global correspondent banks following the increased costs of financial crime compliance may therefore disrupt international trade. This policy brief shows that the withdrawal of correspondent banks from Emerging Europe has negatively and substantially affected the exports of this region. Exploiting an unexpected change in the U.S. regulator’s enforcement of financial crime legislation we compare industry-level bilateral trade flows of countries experiencing a high withdrawal with those that maintain their correspondent bank relationships. We find that the decreased availability of international payment and trade finance services has considerable negative effects on exports. This negative effect is stronger for trading partners that are geographically more distant. A survey of 93 local banks confirms that banks face growing difficulties in performing cross-border payments and in clearing currencies. In particular, access to the U.S. financial system is severely inhibited and local banks can only imperfectly substitute lost correspondent bank relationships with new partners from Russia and Austria

A realist review of interventions and strategies to promote evidence-informed healthcare: a focus on change agency

Background Change agency in its various forms is one intervention aimed at improving the effectiveness of the uptake of evidence. Facilitators, knowledge brokers and opinion leaders are examples of change agency strategies used to promote knowledge utilization. This review adopts a realist approach and addresses the following question: What change agency characteristics work, for whom do they work, in what circumstances and why?Methods The literature reviewed spanned the period 1997-2007. Change agency was operationalized as roles that are aimed at effecting successful change in individuals and organizations. A theoretical framework, developed through stakeholder consultation formed the basis for a search for relevant literature. Team members, working in sub groups, independently themed the data and developed chains of inference to form a series of hypotheses regarding change agency and the role of change agency in knowledge use.Results 24, 478 electronic references were initially returned from search strategies. Preliminary screening of the article titles reduced the list of potentially relevant papers to 196. A review of full document versions of potentially relevant papers resulted in a final list of 52 papers. The findings add to the knowledge of change agency as they raise issues pertaining to how change agents&rsquo; function, how individual change agent characteristics effect evidence-informed health care, the influence of interaction between the change agent and the setting and the overall effect of change agency on knowledge utilization. Particular issues are raised such as how accessibility of the change agent, their cultural compatibility and their attitude mediate overall effectiveness. Findings also indicate the importance of promoting reflection on practice and role modeling. The findings of this study are limited by the complexity and diversity of the change agency literature, poor indexing of literature and a lack of theory-driven approaches.Conclusion This is the first realist review of change agency. Though effectiveness evidence is weak, change agent roles are evolving, as is the literature, which requires more detailed description of interventions, outcomes measures, the context, intensity, and levels at which interventions are implemented in order to understand how change agent interventions effect evidence-informed health care.<br /

Knowledge translation in health care: a concept analysis

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License which allows users to read, copy, distribute and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes from the material, as long as the author of the original work is cited properly.Background :Although knowledge translation is one of the most widely used concepts in health and medical literature, there is a sense of ambiguity and confusion over its definition. The aim of this paper is to clarify the characteristics of KT. This will assist the theoretical development of it and shape its implementation into the health care system Methods : Walker and Avant’s framework was used to analyze the concept and the related literature published between 2000 and 2010 was reviewed. A total of 112 papers were analyzed. Results : Review of the literature showed that "KT is a process" and "implementing refined knowledge into a participatory context through a set of challenging activities" are the characteristics of KT. Moreover, to occur successfully, KT needs some necessary antecedents like an integrated source of knowledge, a receptive context, and preparedness. The main consequence of successful process is a change in four fields of healthcare, i.e. quality of patient care, professional practice, health system, and community. In addition, this study revealed some empirical referents which are helpful to evaluate the process. Conclusion : By aiming to portray a clear picture of KT, we highlighted its attributes, antecedents, consequences and empirical referents. Identifying the characteristics of this concept may resolve the existing ambiguities in its definition and boundaries thereby facilitate distinction from similar concepts. In addition, these findings can be used as a knowledge infrastructure for developing the KT-related models, theories, or tools

Qualitative Evaluation of a Complex Intervention to Improve Rheumatic Heart Disease Secondary Prophylaxis

BACKGROUND Rheumatic heart disease is a high-burden condition in Australian Aboriginal communities. We evaluated a stepped-wedge, community, randomized trial at 10 Aboriginal communities from 2013 to 2015. A multifaceted intervention was implemented using quality improvement and chronic care model approaches to improve delivery of penicillin prophylaxis for rheumatic heart disease. The trial did not improve penicillin adherence. This mixed-methods evaluation, designed a priori, aimed to determine the association between methodological approaches and outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS An evaluation framework was developed to measure the success of project implementation and of the underlying program theory. The program theory posited that penicillin delivery would be improved through activities implemented at clinics that addressed elements of the chronic care model. Qualitative data were derived from interviews with health-center staff, informants, and clients; participant observation; and project officer reports. Quantitative data comprised numbers and types of "action items," which were developed by participating clinic staff with project officers to improve delivery of penicillin injections. Interview data from 121 health-center staff, 22 informants, and 72 clients revealed barriers to achieving the trial's aims, including project-level factors (short trial duration), implementation factors (types of activities implemented), and contextual factors (high staff turnover and the complex sociocultural environment). Insufficient actions were implemented addressing "self-management support" and "community linkage" streams of the chronic care model. Increased momentum was evident in later stages of the study. CONCLUSIONS The program theory underpinning the study was sound. The limited impact made by the study on adherence was attributable to complex implementation challenges.This study was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant 1027040 and Center of Research Excellence 1080401 and by the Wesfarmers Center for Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at Telethon Kids Institute. Ralph and Maguire are supported by NHMRC fellowships (1142011 and 1046563, respectively)

Multigenerational exposure to silver ions and silver nanoparticles reveals heightened sensitivity and epigenetic memory in Caenorhabditis elegans

The effects from multigenerational exposures to engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in their pristine and transformed states are currently unknown despite such exposures being an increasingly common scenario in natural environments. Here, we examine how exposure over 10 generations affects the sensitivity of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to pristine and sulfidized Ag ENPs and AgNO3. We also include populations that were initially exposed over six generations but kept unexposed for subsequent four generations to allow recovery from exposure. Toxicity of the different silver forms decreased in the order AgNO3, Ag ENPs and Ag2S ENPs. Continuous exposure to Ag ENPs and AgNO3 caused pronounced sensitization (approx. 10-fold) in the F2 generation, which was sustained until F10. This sensitization was less pronounced for Ag2S ENP exposures, indicating different toxicity mechanisms. Subtle changes in size and lifespan were also measured. In the recovery populations, the sensitivity to Ag ENPs and AgNO3 resulting from the initial multigenerational exposure persisted. Their response sensitivity for all endpoints was most closely related to the last ancestral exposed generation (F5), rather than unexposed controls. The mechanisms of transgenerational transfer of sensitivity are probably organized through the epigenome, and we encourage others to investigate such effects as a priority for mechanistic toxicology

Influence of soil porewater properties on the fate and toxicity of silver nanoparticles to Caenorhabditis elegans

Engineered nanoparticles (NPs) entering the environment are subject to various transformations that in turn influence how particles are presented to, and taken up by, organisms. To understand the effect of soil properties on the toxicity of nanosilver to Caenorhabditis elegans, toxicity assays were performed in porewater extracts from natural soils with varying organic matter content and pH using 3–8 nm unfunctionalized silver (Ag 3–8Unf), 52‐nm polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)‐coated Ag NPs (Ag 52PVP), and AgNO3 as ionic Ag. Effects on NP agglomeration and stability were investigated using ultraviolet‐visible (UV‐vis) spectroscopy and asymmetric flow field‐flow fractionation (AF4); Ag+ showed greater overall toxicity than nanosilver, with little difference between the NP types. Increasing soil organic matter content significantly decreased the toxicity of Ag 3–8Unf, whereas it increased that of AgNO3. The toxicity of all Ag treatments significantly decreased with increasing porewater pH. Dissolution of both NPs in the porewater extracts was too low to have contributed to their observed toxic effects. The UV‐vis spectroscopy revealed low levels of agglomeration/aggregation independent of soil properties for Ag 3–8Unf, whereas higher organic matter as well as low pH appeared to stabilize Ag 52PVP. Overall, both soil organic matter content and pH affected NP fate as well as toxicity to C. elegans; however, there appears to be no clear connection between the measured particle characteristics and their effect