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Global Banking and the Spillovers from Political Shocks at the Core of the World Economy
No full textWhen do political shocks in core countries reverberate across the global financial system? We identify cross-border banking as a distinct transmission mechanism for political shocks. Democratic processes that advance (undermine) the interests of the global banking industry in core economies benefit (hurt) countries with closer banking ties to these economies. Empirically, we leverage the unanticipated outcomes of the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit referendum to identify the role of cross-border banking in transmitting these shocks. We show that US global banks benefited disproportionately from the US election surprise. Accordingly, countries with closer ties to US banks fared relatively better; exposure to US bank flows cushioned the negative effect of the election. Evidence from Brexit reinforces the banking-channel hypothesis. The findings further our understanding of the role of global banks in the international financial order and underscore the need for more research on the political economy of global banking
Confidence intervals in health and medical journals show an implausible excess of statistically significant results
No full textResults that are statistically significant are more likely to be reported by authors and more likely to be accepted by journals. These common biases warp the published evidence and undermine the ability of research to improve health by giving an incomplete body of evidence. We aimed to show the effect of the bias towards statistical significance on the evidence-base using published confidence intervals. We examined over 968,000 ratios and their confidence intervals in the abstracts of health and medical journals from Medline between 1976 and January 2019. We plotted the distributions of lower and upper confidence interval limits to visually show the strong bias for statistically significant results. There was a striking change in the distributions around 1, which is the statistically significant threshold for ratios. There was an excess of lower intervals just above 1, corresponding to a statistically significant increase in risk. There was a similar excess of upper intervals just below 1, corresponding to a statistically significant decrease in risk. These biases have not improved in recent years. The huge excesses of confidence intervals that are just above and below the statistically significant threshold are not statistically plausible. Large changes in research practice are needed to provide more results that better reflect the truth
‘Other’ gender in India: An Analysis of 2011 Census Data
No full textIn spite of human rights protection given to the “other-gender” population (transgender) worldwide, they still constitute a deserted community which faces a significant occupational challenges around the world. In India, the other-gender community encompasses individuals with a variety of gender identities forming a culturally unique gender group. Although they have always remained an integral part of the society from
the very ancient time, unfortunately their existence is grappling with abject poverty, illiteracy, hatred and mockery. Such stigmatisation and segregation from society have left them to compromise with the employment opportunities available. This paper used the data on ‘other-gender’ released by Census of India for the first time. The 2011 Indian Census reported approximately 4,87,803 individuals belonging to the other-gender category in the country. This data demonstrate that the other-gender community exhibits lower level of literacy and labour force participation when compared with the general population. In this paper, we endeavour to conceptualize these findings and engage in a discussion of the inherent limitations of the data.
Keywords: Census, other-gender, third-gender sexual rights, education, employment
Photonics West 2018 Invited Talk
No full textWe investigate the application of integrated micro-combs in RF photonic systems and demonstrate a microwave photonic intensity differentiator based on a Kerr optical comb generated by a compact integrated micro-ring resonator. The on-chip Kerr optical comb is CMOS-compatible and contains a large number of comb lines, which can serve as a high-performance multi-wavelength source for the transversal filter, thus greatly reduce the cost, size, and complexity of the system. The operation principle is theoretically analyzed, and experimental demonstrations of fractional-, first-, second-, and third-order differentiation functions based on the principle are presented
The Evolutionary Dynamics of Cultural Change (As Told Through the Birth and Brutal, Blackened Death of Metal Music)
No full textHow does culture change? We unify disconnected explanations of change that focus either on individuals or on public culture under a theory of cultural evolution. By shifting our analytical lens from actors to public cultural ideas and object, our theory can explain change in cultural forms over large and long frames of analysis using formal evolutionary mechanisms. Complementing this theory, the paper introduces a suite of novel methods to explain change in the historical trajectories of populations of cultural ideas/objects (e.g., music groups, hashtags, laws, technologies, and organizations) through diversification rates. We deploy our theory and methods to study the history of Metal Music over more than three decades, using a complete dataset of all bands active between 1968 and 2000. Over the course of its history, we find strong evidence that the genre has been fundamentally shaped by competition between ideas for the cognitive resources actors can invest in learning about and reproducing this cultural form over time. Extensive tutorials for the methods are available at http://www.dysoc.org/cesmodules/diversification_module/tutorials
In Search of Feminist Architecture Theory: Questions for the Canon(s)
No full textContributions by women to 20th century architecture theory remain one hugely under investigated subject. On the one hand, theory by women is virtually absent from mainstream canons, while on the other, women authors dominate those canons devoted to gender, feminism, and women’s issues. This chapter explores three aspects of this conundrum. First, it argues that fundamental texts of 20th century architecture theory that are ascribed to one man were produced in collaboration with a woman author; secondly, that historical publications considered key to a gender-based and feminist canon require critical scrutiny as well; and third, that it is time to consider how best to assemble new canons of architecture theory where the presence of women is integral
Single‐source precursor synthesis of a compositionally complex early transitional metal nitride (V, Nb, Ta, Mo, W)Nx and its high temperature stability
No full textCompositionally complex transitional metal nitrides are an interesting class of ceramics with superior chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability, with a high potential in ultra-high temperature applications and catalysis. The exceptionality in the properties may partly be explained as a consequence of their high configuration entropy. Although promising candidates, the bulk synthesis of compositionally complex metal (carbo)nitrides remains challenging, often limited by purity and scalability due to significant oxygen contamination from gaseous reactants or nitrogen loss. To offset these disadvantages, the current manuscript proposes an alternative synthesis route for the synthesis of a compositionally complex nitride (V, Nb, Ta, Mo, W)Nx, which deviates from the typical solid-state and sputtering methods by employing an organometallic precursor route and a double ammonolysis process. This is a first attempt to synthesize such ceramics with low oxygen contamination in compositionally complex (carbo)nitrides with a scalable production. Using a multidisciplinary approach consisting of theoretical methods and experiments, the current study elucidates the evolution and stability of the precursor at high temperatures under carbon, and thereby obtained ceramics at different temperatures
Synthesis and thermal properties of dense Si─Al─C─N‐based polymer‐derived ceramics
No full textIn the present study, aluminum-modified preceramic silicon polymers were synthesized via chemical modification of a commercially available organopolysilazane using an aluminum amido complex. The incorporation of aluminum into the polymer structure and its effect on ceramization behavior and processability as well as the thermal and mechanical properties of the obtained Si─Al─C─N ceramic materials were systematically investigated. The microstructure and chemical composition of the dense, predominantly amorphous monolithic Si─Al─C─N were characterized using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Aluminum incorporation led to enhanced densification of Si─C─N, resulting in monoliths with a porosity fraction as low as 2 vol% achieved for the composition with the highest aluminum content. Al incorporation was shown to also result in a significant reduction in thermal conductivity, thus, Si─Al─C─N formulations exhibited values as low as 0.6 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹. The hardness and Young's modulus remained nearly unchanged upon aluminum incorporation, with values of ca. 14.5 and 156 GPa, respectively, for the high-aluminum-content sample. To the best of our knowledge, the present study reports for the first time on the thermal and mechanical properties of dense, mainly amorphous Si─Al─C─N ceramics, highlighting the suitability of Si─Al─C─N as excellent material for possible thermal insulation at temperatures beyond 1000 °C