Search

Purpose To explain two papers published by the European Securities and Marketing Authority (ESMA) covering the application of the mar-keting “passport” under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). Design/methodology/approach Explains ESMA’s first paper, containing an advice to the European Parliament, Council and Commission (collectively the Trilogue) on the potential application of the AIFMD passport to non-EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMs) and Alternative in-vestment Funds (AIFs), and a second paper, containing ESMA’s opinion on the current functioning of the AIFMD (currently used by EU AIFMs marketing EU AIFs in the EU) and National Private Placement Regimes (NPPRs, used for marketing by non-EU AIFMs and non-EU AIFs). Findings The ESMA papers were disappointing because they gave far less guidance and encouragement than anticipated that AIFs located in major jurisdictions such as the US and the Cayman Islands will be any easier to market to EU professional investors in the near future. Practical implications AIFMs (both inside and outside the EU) who are already using, or intending to use, the NPPRs should take some comfort that it seems highly unlikely that these regimes will be removed in the near future. Originality/value Practical guidance from experienced financial services lawyers.

Although prior studies have demonstrated effects of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) in reducing self-reported pain, no laboratory studies have examined the effects of PMR on objective indicators of descending modulation of nociception. This randomized controlled study utilized the nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR) to evaluate nociceptive responding among 55 college-age men and women (mean age = 19.4 ± 1.2 years). Participants completed laboratory assessments of NFR threshold and questionnaires evaluating pain and stress. Participants were then randomly assigned to either a 25-min PMR condition or a no-treatment control condition. Following the brief intervention, participants completed a second NFR procedure and self-report questionnaires. Results indicated a significant time by condition interaction for NFR, with participants in the PMR condition experiencing a significant increase in NFR threshold while participants in the no-treatment condition experienced no change in NFR. Ratings of pain did not change during the study, but PMR participants reported decreased stress following the PMR intervention. This is the first study with a randomized no-treatment control group demonstrating the effect of a brief PMR protocol on descending inhibition of nociception. Results support the efficacy of PMR in reducing nociceptive response and provide further evidence of the utility of behavioral pain management strategies.

Although this study may be helpful for a theological understanding of the poetry of George Herbert, its more immediate concerns are not with theology. This thesis is an attempt to look beyond theology to the nature of the religious experience itself, and to explore that experience through the symbols that express it. Each of the symbols I have chosen, water, fire, and blood, reveals the essential paradox of the religious life, for while each symbol contains an element of terror and should be feared, each symbol also contains an element of relief and should be willingly embraced. Herbert's understanding of these symbols is not peculiar either to his poetry or to his age. The connection between Herbert's use of these symbols and the biblical use of them is undeniable and the influence of The Book of Common Prayer is considerable. Water is used by Herbert to indicate his own sense of defilement and it becomes a sign of God's wrath with the power to destroy corruption. At the very moment of destruction, however, water also symbolizes purification and the establishment of new life. Similarly, fire destroys and recreates, and blood, too, defiles and purifies. Moreover, contact with each of these three symbols reveals a glimpse of the character of the holy; the paradoxical qualities inherent in the symbols are a reflection of the paradoxical qualities of the divine nature itself. Finally, each of the symbols transforms Herbert's world by abolishing the divisions between the sacred and profane, the temporal and the eternal, even between life and death itself. Through water, fire, and blood, all things are made new. Master of Arts (MA)