The moving targets algorithm for difficult temporal credit assignment problems

The 'moving targets' algorithm for training recurrent networks is reviewed and applied to a task which demonstrates the ability of this algorithm to use distant contextual information. Some practical difficulties are discussed, especially with regard to the minimization process. Results on performance and computational requirements of several different 2nd-order minimization algorithms are presented for moving target problems.

Bringing hope to crisis: critical thinking, ethical action and social change

This paper departs from this point to consider whether and how crisis thinking contributes to practices of affirmative critique and transformative social action in late-capitalist societies. I argue that different deployments of crisis thinking have different ‘affect-effects’ and consequences for ethical and political practice. Some work to mobilize political action through articulating a politics of fear, assuming that people take most responsibility for the future when they fear the alternatives. Other forms of crisis thinking work to heighten critical awareness by disrupting existential certainty, asserting an ‘ethics of ambiguity’ which assumes that the continuous production of uncertain futures is a fundamental part of the human condition (de Beauvoir, 2000). In this paper, I hope to illustrate that the first deployment of crisis thinking can easily justify the closing down of political debate, discouraging radical experimentation and critique for the sake of resolving problems in a timely and decisive way. The second approach to crisis thinking, on the other hand, has greater potential to enable intellectual and political alterity in everyday life—but one that poses considerable challenges for our understandings of and responses to climate change...

Credit and collateral

Collateral - generally defined as an asset used to provide security for a lender's loan - is an important feature of credit contracts and all the available evidence suggests that its use is getting more pervasive. This informative book builds upon recent research into this topic. Sena analyses three case-studies that revolve around the impact that financial constraints have on economic outcomes. In the first case-study, the relationship between firms' technical efficiency and increasing financial pressure is explored. The author then goes on to show, in the second case study, that under specific circumstances, increasing financial pressure and increasing product market competition can jointly have a positive impact on firms' technical efficiency, while not being true for all types of firms. In the third case, she analyses the impact that finance constraints have on women's start-ups. Unique and revealing, this is the first book to deal so extensively with the topic of collateral, and as such, is a valuable reference to postgraduates and professionals in the fields of macroeconomics, monetary and business economics. © 2008 Vania Sena. All rights reserved.

Marketing strategy and new product development in the UK credit card industry

The development of new products in today's marketing environment is generally accepted as a requirement for the continual growth and prosperity of organisations. The literature is consequently rich with information on the development of various aspects of good products. In the case of service industries, it can be argued that new service product development is of as least equal importance as it is to organisations that produce tangible goods products. Unlike the new goods product literature, the literature on service marketing practices, and in particular, new service product development, is relatively sparse. The main purpose of this thesis is to examine a number of aspects of new service product development practice with respect to financial services and specifically, credit card financial services. The empirical investigation utilises both a case study and a survey approach, to examine aspects of new service product development industry practice relating specifically to gaps and deficiencies in the literature with respect to the financial service industry. The findings of the empirical work are subsequently examined in the context in which they provide guidance and support for a new normative new service product development model. The study examines the UK credit card financial service product sector as an industry case study and perspective. The findings of the field work reveal that the new service product development process is still evolving, and that in the case of credit card financial services can be seen as a well-structured and well-documented process. New product development can also be seen as an incremental, complex, interactive and continuous process which has been applied in a variety of ways. A number of inferences are subsequently presented.

Export credit finance with special reference to EEC countries

DUE TO COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION AT ASTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY WITH PRIOR ARRANGEMENT

Beyond all reason:spaces of hope in the struggle for England’s universities

This essay examines how academics and students in England have been primed to comply with a political agenda of “deep” neoliberalization through cumulative processes of institutional and subjective undermining and considers what might be an appropriate logic of critical response. It first describes how the embedding of principles and mechanisms of market governance within academic life has depoliticized methods for critically theorizing and collectively resisting these processes and then explores the work of recent student-led opposition to the British government’s new policies, teasing out some theoretical implications of the logic of occupation being cultivated there. It suggests that by fusing a determination for autonomy with a transgressive cultivation of new forms of thinking and social practice, the occupations illustrate new critical-experimental work in the politics of possibility. The underlying logic thus offers some resources for reimagining modalities of resistance to processes of deep neoliberalization; however, becoming receptive to them may also require a critique of professional academic subjectivities and reevaluation of attachments to existing forms of the university itself.

Implications of bank ownership for the credit channel of monetary policy transmission:evidence from India

Using bank-level data from India, we examine the impact of ownership on the reaction of banks to monetary policy, and also test whether the reaction of different types of banks to monetary policy changes is different in easy and tight policy regimes. Our results suggest that there are considerable differences in the reactions of different types of banks to monetary policy initiatives of the central bank, and that the bank lending channel of monetary policy is likely to be much more effective in a tight money period than in an easy money period. We also find differences in impact of monetary policy changes on less risky short-term and more risky medium-term lending. We discuss the policy implications of the findings.

Interaction between formal and informal sector credit:new evidence from India

Using a new pan-Indian data set, we examine the factors that potentially influence joint access to formal and informal credit markets. Our results are consistent with the literature and bring some new factors influencing access to credit to the fore.

Sticky credit spreads, macroeconomic activity and equity market volatility

We uncover high persistence in credit spread series that can obscure the relationship between the theoretical determinants of credit risk and observed credit spreads. We use a Markovswitching model, which also captures the stability (low frequency changes) of credit ratings, to show why credit spreads may continue to respond to past levels of credit risk, even though the state of the economy has changed. A bivariate model of credit spreads and either macroeconomic activity or equity market volatility detects large and significant correlations that are consistent with theory but have not been observed in previous studies. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Wealth shocks, credit-supply shocks, and asset allocation:evidence from household and firm portfolios

We use a unique dataset with bank clients’ security holdings for all German banks to examine how macroeconomic shocks affect asset allocation preferences of households and non-financial firms. Our analysis focuses on two alternative mechanisms which can influence portfolio choice: wealth shocks, which are represented by the sovereign debt crisis in the Euro area, and credit-supply shocks which arise from reductions in borrowing abilities during bank distress. While households with large holdings of securities from stressed Euro area countries (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) de-crease the degree of concentration in their security portfolio as a result of the Euro area crisis, non-financial firms with similar levels of holdings from stressed Euro area countries do not. Credit-supply shocks at the bank level result in lower concentration, for both households and non-financial corporations. Only shocks to corporate credit bear ramifications on bank clients’ portfolio concentration. Our results are robust to falsification tests, and instrumental variables estimation.

Memantine combined with an acetyl cholinesterase inhibitor:hope for the future?

Background:Memantine and cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI) have distinct pharmacological actions, and interest in the use of combination therapy for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is increasing. Objective: To assess the available data on the use of memantine–ChEI combination and to develop evidence-based recommendations.Method: A systematic literature review with detailed discussion of the current evidence base. Results: Available data are limited: five studies of which two were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. One study indicated that memantine–ChEI combination is not significantly more effective than placebo–ChEI in mild to moderate AD, but data were published in abstract and poster form only. A second study indicated that the memantine–ChEI combination is significantly more effective than placebo–ChEI in moderate to severe AD. The calculated effect sizes of 0.36 on cognition and 0.12 on function, which were the primary outcomes, were small, indicating a clinically minimal effect on cognition and no effect on function. No data are available on whether combination treatment is more effective than memantine monotherapy. Conclusion: The available data do not justify the use of combination therapy. Future studies should include three arms (memantine–placebo, placebo–ChEI, and memantine–ChEI), be of an adequate size and duration, and use pragmatic measures. Clinicians should have full access to data from any future trials.