“Racing” to the IBOR transition finish line

Purpose Summarize and review the key developments during 2021 relating to transition of the London InterBank Offered Rate (LIBOR) to alternative risk-free rates, in accordance with the guidance of global regulators and market participants. Design/methodology/approach Outlines and explains four key events to date during 2021 that are instrumental to the success of LIBOR transition, including the ISDA 2020 IBOR Protocol and Supplement, the 5 March 2021 announcements by ICE Benchmark Administration and the Financial Conduct Authority, the transition of interdealer swap conventions from LIBOR to SOFR, and the ARRC endorsement of the CME Group SOFR term rate. Findings The global adherence to the ISDA Protocol and Supplement, the successful launch of “SOFR First” and other “RFR First” swaps convention transitions, and the ARRC’s endorsement of CME’s SOFR term rate have given the market the clarity and tools that it needs to complete the transition away from LIBOR by the deadlines fixed by the 5 March 2021 benchmark transition event. Practical implications It now is clear that market participants globally have the resources to, and must, move to adopt alternative reference rates and related operational systems and other infrastructure to cease origination of new LIBOR-linked contracts after 31 December 2021. The ARRC’s endorsement of the SOFR term rate for business loans and related derivatives and securitizations is a critical positive development for the structured finance market. Originality/value Expert analysis and guidance from experienced finance lawyers.

Genomic evidence for inter-class host transition between abundant streamlined heterotrophs by a novel and ubiquitous marine Methylophage

The methylotrophic OM43 clade are Gammaproteobacteria that comprise some of the smallest free-living cells known with highly streamlined genomes. OM43 represents an important microbial link between marine primary production and return of carbon back to the atmosphere. Bacteriophages shape microbial communities and are major drivers of mortality and global marine biogeochemistry. Recent cultivation efforts have brought the first viruses infecting members of the OM43 clade into culture. Here we characterize a novel myophage infecting OM43, called Melnitz. Melnitz was isolated independently on three separate occasions (with isolates sharing >99.95% average nucleotide identity) from water samples from a subtropical ocean gyre (Sargasso Sea) and temperate coastal (Western English Channel) systems. Metagenomic recruitment from global ocean viromes confirmed that Melnitz is globally ubiquitous, congruent with patterns of host abundance. Bacteria with streamlined genomes such as OM43 and the globally dominant SAR11 clade use riboswitches as an efficient method to regulate metabolism. Melnitz encodes a two-piece tmRNA (ssrA), controlled by a glutamine riboswitch, providing evidence that riboswitch use also occurs for regulation during phage infection of streamlined heterotrophs. Virally encoded tRNAs and ssrA found in Melnitz were phylogenetically more closely related to those found within the alphaproteobacterial SAR11 clade and their associated myophages than those within their gammaproteobacterial hosts. This suggests the possibility of an ancestral inter-class host transition event between SAR11 and OM43. Melnitz and a related myophage that infects SAR11 were unable to infect hosts of the SAR11 and OM43, respectively, suggesting host transition rather than a broadening of host range.

SN 2018zd: an unusual stellar explosion as part of the diverse Type II Supernova landscape

ABSTRACT We present extensive observations of SN 2018zd covering the first ∼450 d after the explosion. This SN shows a possible shock-breakout signal ∼3.6 h after the explosion in the unfiltered light curve, and prominent flash-ionization spectral features within the first week. The unusual photospheric temperature rise (rapidly from ∼12 000 to above 18 000 K) within the earliest few days suggests that the ejecta were continuously heated. Both the significant temperature rise and the flash spectral features can be explained by the interaction of the SN ejecta with the massive stellar wind ($0.18^{+0.05}_{-0.10}\, \rm M_{\odot }$), which accounts for the luminous peak ($L_{\rm max} = [1.36\pm 0.63] \times 10^{43}\, \rm erg\, s^{-1}$) of SN 2018zd. The luminous peak and low expansion velocity (v ≈ 3300 km s−1) make SN 2018zd like a member of the LLEV (luminous SNe II with low expansion velocities) events originating due to circumstellar interaction. The relatively fast post-peak decline allows a classification of SN 2018zd as a transition event morphologically linking SNe IIP and SNe IIL. In the radioactive-decay phase, SN 2018zd experienced a significant flux drop and behaved more like a low-luminosity SN IIP both spectroscopically and photometrically. This contrast indicates that circumstellar interaction plays a vital role in modifying the observed light curves of SNe II. Comparing nebular-phase spectra with model predictions suggests that SN 2018zd arose from a star of $\sim 12\, \rm M_{\odot }$. Given the relatively small amount of 56Ni ($0.013\!-\!0.035 \rm M_{\odot }$), the massive stellar wind, and the faint X-ray radiation, the progenitor of SN 2018zd could be a massive asymptotic giant branch star that collapsed owing to electron capture.

An Approach for Estimating Ecosystem Services as Indicator System for Landscape Management: Petri Net Framework

Modelling and simulation using Petri nets offer an approach for estimating Ecosystem Services (ES) at the landscape scale. This can be possible when considering their demand and supply on activities that lead to reduction and improvement of them at the landscape scale, especially in relation to multi-agent. Even though, this is a complex process, but identifying and describing these relationships can be a way further. Petri net modelling framework offers a clear advantage in this respect. This paper presents the first attempt of using Petri net as a modelling tool to estimate ES. The Petri net is constructed to model the flow of ES after a particular transition event within a landscape. The objective is to provide a modelling framework for estimating ES based on indicator systems that can support their management at the landscape. Aggregated data collected from the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Spreewald (BRS)-Germany is used for experimentation of the model on a real scenario application. The Petri net estimation technique and indicator system for landscape management of ES are discussed in more details.

A Combined Motion-Audio School Bullying Detection Algorithm

School bullying is a common social problem, which affects children both mentally and physically, making the prevention of bullying a timeless topic all over the world. This paper proposes a method for detecting bullying in school based on activity recognition and speech emotion recognition. In this method, motion and voice data are gathered by movement sensors and a microphone, followed by extraction of a set of motion and audio features to distinguish bullying incidents from daily life events. Among extracted motion features are both time-domain and frequency-domain features, while audio features are computed with classical MFCCs. Feature selection is implemented using the wrapper approach. At the next stage, these motion and audio features are merged to form combined feature vectors for classification, and LDA is used for further dimension reduction. A BPNN is trained to recognize bullying activities and distinguish them from normal daily life activities. The authors also propose an action transition detection method to reduce computational complexity for practical use. Thus, the bullying detection algorithm will only run, when an action transition event has been detected. Simulation results show that the combined motion-audio feature vector outperforms separate motion features and acoustic features, achieving an accuracy of 82.4% and a precision of 92.2%. Moreover, with the action transition method, the computation cost can be reduced by half.

Canoe Trips: An Especially Good Place for Conversation About Student Transition

Background: Many postsecondary institutions offer outdoor programs to incoming students as a form of orientation or transition event. Positive outcomes for students are shown to result from these interventions but less is known about the mechanisms leading to these outcomes. Purpose: This article argues that conversation is one of these mechanisms and suggests canoe trips are an especially good intervention in which to generate conversation about student transition. Methodology/Approach: Insights emerging from our own outdoor orientation program called Portage lead to a hypothesis that canoe trips create three conditions ideal for the generation of productive conversation about student transition: the emergence of communitas, more egalitarian and communal relationships, and a rich source of metaphor. Findings/Conclusions: The Portage experience shows promise as a way to help students explore their educational and transition experiences through conversation. Implications: The intentional generation of conversation through metaphor on canoe trips may offer a useful space of pedagogical possibility to help students contemplate and pass through their transition more productively.

Radiocarbon Evidence for the Pace of the M-/L-PPNB Transition in 8th Millennium BC Southwest Asia

The transition from the Middle to Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) happened throughout southwest Asia in the mid-8th millennium cal BC. It entailed the abandonment of a number of sites, rapid growth of others, as well as the wide spread of morphologically domestic caprines. What remains an unknown is how rapid these processes were in real time. Over the period when the transition was taking place, the calibration curve has two shallow sections divided by a sudden drop, which for many of the older dates creates an illusion of a sudden cultural break around 7600–7500 cal BC. Yet a more detailed study presented in this paper suggests that the transition event could have been spread over a more extended period of time. This, however, is still far from certain due to risks of old wood effects and complexities of site formation.