Cash Providers: Asset Dissemination over Intermediation Chains

Many financial assets are disseminated to final investors via chains of over-the-counter transactions between intermediaries (investors or dealers). We build a model where an agent buying some units of the asset can offer to sell part of them to an OTC partner. Intermediation chains are endogenously formed and impact the asset's market liquidity, its issuance, and who ultimately holds the asset. An increase in the intermediaries' funding liquidity (e.g. a lower haircut on the asset) makes intermediation less necessary but also makes it cheaper to issue the asset, increasing the total volume to be distributed and the number of intermediaries and agents holding the asset. We derive implications on liquidity in OTC markets, the dissemination of ''toxic" assets and the collateral policy of central banks and CCPs

Faciliter la transition des soins des personnes âgées victimes d'AVC: de la réadaptation hospitalière au domicile : revue de littérature

Cette revue de littérature a pour but de mettre en évidence les stratégies infirmières facilitatrices dans un contexte de transition des soins entre la réadaptation en milieu hospitalier et le domicile du patient âgé victime d’AVC

Thirteen polymorphic microsatellite markers for the European green toad Bufo viridis viridis , a declining amphibian species

We report 13 new polymorphic microsatellite markers for the European green toad Bufo viridis viridis (B. viridis subgroup), a declining amphibian from Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe. Diversity at these loci estimated for 19 individuals ranged from two to ten alleles. Most of these primers also cross-amplify in related West-Mediterranean green toad species (Bufo balearicus, B. siculus and B. boulengeri). These microsatellites will be useful for conservation genetics of threatened Bufo viridis viridis populations and evolutionary studies of green toad taxa in secondary contact to examine hybridizatio

Profound genetic divergence and asymmetric parental genome contributions as hallmarks of hybrid speciation in polyploid toads.

The evolutionary causes and consequences of allopolyploidization, an exceptional pathway to instant hybrid speciation, are poorly investigated in animals. In particular, when and why hybrid polyploids versus diploids are produced, and constraints on sources of paternal and maternal ancestors, remain underexplored. Using the Palearctic green toad radiation (including bisexually reproducing species of three ploidy levels) as model, we generate a range-wide multi-locus phylogeny of 15 taxa and present four new insights: (i) at least five (up to seven) distinct allotriploid and allotetraploid taxa have evolved in the Pleistocene; (ii) all maternal and paternal ancestors of hybrid polyploids stem from two deeply diverged nuclear clades (6 Mya, 3.1-9.6 Mya), with distinctly greater divergence than the parental species of diploid hybrids found at secondary contact zones; (iii) allotriploid taxa possess two conspecific genomes and a deeply diverged allospecific one, suggesting that genomic imbalance and divergence are causal for their partly clonal reproductive mode; (iv) maternal versus paternal genome contributions exhibit asymmetry, with the maternal nuclear (and mitochondrial) genome of polyploids always coming from the same clade, and the paternal genome from the other. We compare our findings with similar patterns in diploid/polyploid vertebrates, and suggest deep ancestral divergence as a precondition for successful allopolyploidization

Genome size rather than content might affect call properties in toads of three ploidy levels (Anura: Bufonidae: Bufo viridis subgroup)

In vertebrates, genome size has been shown to correlate with nuclear and cell sizes, and influences phenotypic features, such as brain complexity. In three different anuran families, advertisement calls of polyploids exhibit longer notes and intervals than diploids, and difference in cellular dimensions have been hypothesized to cause these modifications. We investigated this phenomenon in green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup) of three ploidy levels, in a different call type (release calls) that may evolve independently from advertisement calls, examining 1205 calls, from ten species, subspecies, and hybrid forms. Significant differences between pulse rates of six diploid and four polyploid (3n, 4n) green toad forms across a range of temperatures from 7 to 27 °C were found. Laboratory data supported differences in pulse rates of triploids vs. tetraploids, but failed to reach significance when including field recordings. This study supports the idea that genome size, irrespective of call type, phylogenetic context, and geographical background, might affect call properties in anurans and suggests a common principle governing this relationship. The nuclear-cell size ratio, affected by genome size, seems the most plausible explanation. However, we cannot rule out hypotheses under which call-influencing genes from an unexamined diploid ancestral species might also affect call properties in the hybrid-origin polyploids

Quantification and accuracy of learning through gaze tracking

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityIntroduction: The processes of learning and teaching are fundamentally linked. Therefore, to truly understand how both processes are interconnected we must first define each term separately. Learning can be defined as “the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skills” (Conner 1997). Teaching is much more than the simple delivery of information as it also involves knowing how to grab an audience’s attention and keep them engaged in order for them to truly recall what is being taught to them in a near future. There are several theories that try to explain this complex dynamic by proposing several learning theories and learning styles as to how people learn best. Some popular theories of learning are behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and more recently connectivism. The method a person implements during learning cannot be directly measured via test results. Therefore, we are investigating whether students’ eye movements are potential indicators of how the students learn. Methods: The visual information presented on the computer screen were a series of 6 black and white line drawings of cells that are either oblong or square shaped. The experiment was divided into a Baseline phase, a Training phase, and a Testing phase. The subjects are first asked to visually explore each image during the Baseline phase. Subjects in the Experimental group are then trained to use salient features to identify cell images, which have been assigned a number 1-6 while the Control group received no training but were shown the same numbered cells with no labeled key features. In the Testing phase of the experiment, both groups were asked to identify cells by number. It is during this phase that the subjects see all six images three times but in different orientations: a 180- degree flip, a horizontal flip, and the original or same orientation as the baseline. [TRUNCATED

Credit risk in European banks: The bright side of the internal ratings based approach

This paper investigates the accuracy of internal rating based (IRB) models in measuring credit risk. We contribute to the growing debate on the current prudential regulatory framework by investigating the use of validated IRB models in promoting efficient risk management practices. Our empirical analysis is based on a novel panel data set of 177 Western European banks observed from 2008 to 2015, in the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis. We find that IRB banks were able to curb the increase in credit risk driven by the macroeconomic slowdown better than banks under the standardized approach. This suggests that the introduction of the internal ratings based approach by Basel II has promoted the adoption of stronger risk management practices among banks, as meant by the regulators

Observations sur le projet final de Constitution de la République Tunisienne

Avis juridique du Conseil de l'Europe (Commission de Venise, en collaboration avec le Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux) du 17 juillet 2013 sur le projet final de la Constitution tunisienne du 1er juillet 201