5,024 research outputs found
[Book Review of] \u3cem\u3eWhen Killing is Wrong: Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Courts\u3c/em\u3e, by Arthur J. Dyck
The 2001 survey of commercial banks in the Tenth Federal Reserve District : changes and challenges
Periodically, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City surveys District bankers for their views on a variety of matters. In February 2001, we solicited banker opinion on a number of topics pertaining to deposit and loan competition, management and staffing challenges, Internet banking activities, funding options, operational issues, the effects of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and near-term prospects. ; This essay briefly discusses the Tenth District’s geography, economics, and demographics and thereby provides context for the survey responses we received. It introduces subsequent articles that describe in more detail responses to survey topics. It also sets out the survey methodology and describes the applicability of survey results to the entire population of Tenth District banks. Broadly speaking, survey results can be generalized for all Tenth District banks. ; We also review what bankers told us about their environment, competition, and future challenges. The representative bank in the District is family owned and locally controlled. The economic and competitive environment that District banks face depends, in part, on growth prospects and diversification opportunities of the bank's communities. The most intense loan and deposits competitors are other community banks. Problems that most challenge survey respondents involve basic aspects of successfully managing a bank: funding, income sources, and meeting competition. Despite identifying many problems, all but a few bankers expect their banks will remain in business and succeed.Federal Reserve District, 10th ; Banks and banking
The Constitution v. The Convention: The Evolution of the Court-Mandated Right to Counsel in the United States and Europe
Discounting Rules for Risky Assets
This paper develops a rule for calculating a discount rate to value risky projects. The rule assumes that asset risk can be measured by a single index (e.g., beta), but makes no other assumptions about specific forms of the asset pricing model. It treats all projects as combinations of two assets: Treasury bills and the market portfolio. We know how to value each of these assets under any theory of debt and taxes and under any assumption about the slope and intercept of the market line for equity securities. Our discount rate is a weighted average of the after-tax return on riskless debt and the expected return on the portfolio, where the weight on the market portfolio is beta.
Cluster evolution as a probe of primordial density fluctuations
Although COBE's detection of large angle microwave background anisotropies fixes the amplitude of density fluctuations on length scales k exp -1 approximately = (300-6000) h(exp -1)Mpc, what is crucial for the level of large scale clustering is the amplitude of density fluctuations on scales (5-50) h(exp -1)Mpc. The level of dynamical clustering is usually parameterized by the size of the mass fluctuations in 8 h exp -1 Mpc spheres, sigma sub 8. For the cold dark matter model, COBE gives sigma sub 8 approximately = 1, while models with extra large scale power give sigma sub 8 approximately = 1/2. The most massive clusters of galaxies (greater than or approximately = 10 exp 15 solar mass) form from rare 'peak patches' found in the initial mass density distribution. Their abundance as a function of redshift is a sensitive probe of the wave number band k(exp -1) approx. (3-8) h(exp -1)Mpc, hence of sigma sub 8, and so cluster evolution can discriminate among models allowed by the COBE results. We use our Hierarchical Peaks Method, which accurately reproduces the results of P3M N-body simulations, to calculate the evolution of cluster x-ray flux counts, luminosity, and temperature functions as a function of sigma sub 8 for CDM models and those with more large scale power. We find that the EMSS and Edge et al. cluster samples support sigma sub 8 in the range from approx. 0.6-0.9, and that models with more large scale power (and hence flatter fluctuation spectra in the cluster regime) fit the x-ray bright end better
Star Cluster Formation in Turbulent, Magnetized Dense Clumps with Radiative and Outflow Feedback
We present three Orion simulations of star cluster formation in a 1000 Msun,
turbulent molecular cloud clump, including the effects of radiative transfer,
protostellar outflows, and magnetic fields. Our simulations all use
self-consistent turbulent initial conditions and vary the mean mass-to-flux
ratio relative to the critical value over 2, 10, and infinity to gauge the
influence of magnetic fields on star cluster formation. We find, in good
agreement with previous studies, that magnetic fields of typically observed
strengths lower the star formation rate by a factor of 2.4 and reduce the
amount of fragmentation by a factor of 2 relative to the zero-field case. We
also find that the field increases the characteristic sink particle mass, again
by a factor of 2.4. The magnetic field also increases the degree of clustering
in our simulations, such that the maximum stellar densities in the strong field
case are higher than the others by again a factor of 2. This clustering tends
to encourage the formation of multiple systems, which are more common in the
rad-MHD runs than the rad-hydro run. The companion frequency in our simulations
is consistent with observations of multiplicity in Class I sources,
particularly for the strong field case. Finally, we find evidence of primordial
mass segregation in our simulations reminiscent of that observed in star
clusters like the Orion Nebula Cluster.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, accepted by MNRA
Primeval galaxies in the sub-mm and mm
Although the results of COBE's FIRAS experiment 1 constrain the deviation in energy from the CMB blackbody in the 500-5000 micron range to be delta E/E, sub cmb less than 0.005, primeval galaxies can still lead to a brilliant sub-mm sky of non-Gaussian sources that are detectable at 10 inch resolution from planned arrays such as SCUBA on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and, quite plausibly, at sub-arcsecond resolution in planned mm and sub-mm interferometers. Here, we apply our hierarchical peaks method to a CDM model to construct sub-mm and mm maps of bursting PG's appropriate for these instruments with minimum contours chosen to correspond to realistic observational parameters for them and which pass the FIRAS limits
Pop-up Java: An Augmented Reality Mobile Game to Teach Java
As computers become more and more ubiquitous, it becomes increasingly important and prevalent to teach coding. Coding builds important life skills such as organization, higher order thinking, self-esteem, socialization and teamwork, among many others. However, learning the skills necessary to design and create an efficient program from scratch takes a lot of practice that can often be confusing and frustrating to newcomers.
There are a large number of programming languages in the world, each with their own merits. The TIOBE Programming Community Index calculates the popularity of programming languages by tallying search queries on major search engines, and shows that Java is and has been the most widely used programming language for over a decade. A similar site called PYPL that aggregates results from Google Trends shows that Java makes up over 23% of programming language related queries, far outweighing any other programming languages on the list with python at 14% and PHP at 9.7%. Popular online job board Dice.com reports that Java-related job postings are much more common than other languages (What’s Hot (and Not) in Tech Skills, 2016), and the trend search on similar job board indeed.com shows that there are 2-3 or more Java-related job postings for every equivalent posting for other languages such as C++, Python, or C#.
Despite Java’s popularity, pedagogical instruction of Java is typically handled in a standard lecture-and-exercises format. With the advancement of technology, there is always room for new technologies to emerge to provide new ways of learning. This paper presents an Pop-up Java, an augmented reality educational game that aims to teach Java programming constructs in an easy to use, fun, and immersive environment
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