"Profitability and the Time-Varying Liquidity Premium in the Term Structure of Interest Rates"

There have been numerous empirical studies of the term structure. Broadly, the evidence may be said to be consistent with some influence from expectations plus the existence of a liquidity premium. Long rates or the spread between long and short rates have seemed to be systematically related to expectations of future rates, though the expectations embodied in long rates or the spread are biased upwards as the liquidity preference theory would predict. The degree of influence of expectations and the behavior of the liquidity premium, however, have remained matters of controversy. In several recent studies (e.g., Robert Shillert 1979; Shiller, John Campbell, and Kermit Schoenholtz, 1983; David Jones and Vance Roley, 1983; Mankiw and Summers, 1984; and Mankiw, 1986) the expectations theory has performed poorly, even allowing for the existence of a constant liquidity premium, in attempts to test the joint hypothesis of rational expectations and the expectations theory. Shiller, Campbell, and Schoenholtz and Mankiw and Summers, among others, have suggested renewing the search for the determinants of a time-varying liquidity premium as a possibility for explaining what is going on but have had little success themselves in finding such.

A Formal Context Representation Framework for Network-Enabled Cognition

Network-accessible resources are inherently contextual with respect to the specific situations (e.g., location and default assumptions) in which they are used. Therefore, the explicit conceptualization and representation of contexts is required to address a number of problems in Network- Enabled Cognition (NEC). We propose a context representation framework to address the computational specification of contexts. Our focus is on developing a formal model of context for the unambiguous and effective delivery of data and knowledge, in particular, for enabling forms of automated inference that address contextual differences between agents in a distributed network environment. We identify several components for the conceptualization of contexts within the context representation framework. These include jurisdictions (which can be used to interpret contextual data), semantic assumptions (which highlight the meaning of data), provenance information and inter-context relationships. Finally, we demonstrate the application of the context representation framework in a collaborative military coalition planning scenario. We show how the framework can be used to support the representation of plan-relevant contextual information

Exploring the use of Controlled English for communication with ACT-R agents

Research is being undertaken into sense-making by collaborative agents, based upon a cognitive framework of human behaviour, ACT-R, together with communication between the agents. We explore the use of Controlled English for this purpos

Supporting Distributed Coalition Planning with Semantic Wiki Technology

Contemporary and near-future military coalition environments present a number of challenges for military planning. Not only must military planners create plans against a backdrop of strict time constraints and uncertain information, they must also coordinate their planning efforts with other planning staff (often from different organizational, linguistic and cultural communities). This paper examines the potential for semantic wikis to support collaborative planning activities in the face of these challenges. Whilst we do not claim that semantic wikis could support all aspects of the collaborative planning process, we do suggest that semantic wikis can provide a highly configurable online editing environment which is likely to be of value in at least some coalition planning contexts. The strengths of semantic wikis include their support for distributed editing, their support for flexible forms of information presentation, and the opportunities they provide for new forms of inter-agent coordination. Their weaknesses include the absence of supportive plan editing interfaces and the limited support for the representation of highly expressive planning models. In the current paper, we discuss this profile of strengths and weaknesses, and we also discuss how a specific semantic wiki system, namely Semantic MediaWiki, could be used to support some aspects of collaborative planning

What's in a name? Exploiting URIs to enrich provenance explanations in plain English

Provenance allows decision-makers to evaluate the importance of pieces of data. PROV is the standardised model of provenance for use on the web, particularly suited for situations where data is generated by systems under distributed control, such as in coalition operations. If human decision-makers are to make effective use of provenance data, they need to understand it, and this work establishes techniques for explaining PROV graphs to human users in natural English.In this paper, we demonstrate the potential role of exploiting the linguistic information that is informally encoded in the URIs used to denote provenance data resources to generate these more natural English explanations of provenance. We show how this additional linguistic information allows us to generate richer, more readable explanation texts, thus enabling better decision-making and increasing the value of preexisting provenance data.<br/

Single hole transistor in a p-Si/SiGe quantum well

A single hole transistor is patterned in a p-Si/SiGe quantum well by applying voltages to nanostructured top gate electrodes. Gating is achieved by oxidizing the etched semiconductor surface and the mesa walls before evaporation of the top gates. Pronounced Coulomb blockade effects are observed at small coupling of the transistor island to source and drain.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Socially-distributed cognition and cognitive architectures: towards an ACT-R-based cognitive social simulation capability

ACT-R is one of the most widely used cognitive architectures, and it has been used to model hundreds of phenomena described in the cognitive psychology literature. In spite of this, there are relatively few studies that have attempted to apply ACT-R to situations involving social interaction. This is an important omission since the social aspects of cognition have been a growing area of interest in the cognitive science community, and an understanding of the dynamics of collective cognition is of particular importance in many organizational settings. In order to support the computational modeling and simulation of socially-distributed cognitive processes, a simulation capability based on the ACT-R architecture is described. This capability features a number of extensions to the core ACT-R architecture that are intended to support social interaction and collaborative problem solving. The core features of a number of supporting applications and services are also described. These applications/services support the execution, monitoring and analysis of simulation experiments. Finally, a system designed to record human behavioral data in a collective problem-solving task is described. This system is being used to undertake a range of experiments with teams of human subjects, and it will ultimately support the development of high fidelity ACT-R cognitive models. Such models can be used in conjunction with the ACT-R simulation capability to test hypotheses concerning the interaction between cognitive, social and technological factors in tasks involving socially-distributed information processing

Pharmacist Contributions to the U.S. Health Care System

Objective: The overall goal for this study was to conduct a segment analysis of the pharmacist workforce during 2009 based upon time spent in medication providing and in patient care services. Methods: Data for this study were obtained from the 2009 National Pharmacist Workforce Survey in which a random sample of 3,000 pharmacists was selected. Cluster analysis was used for identifying pharmacist segments and descriptive statistics were used for describing and comparing segments.Results: Of the 2,667 surveys that were presumed to be delivered to a pharmacist, 1,395 were returned yielding a 52.3% overall response rate. Of these, 1,200 responses were usable for cluster analysis. Findings from this study revealed five segments ofpharmacists: (1) Medication Providers, (2) Medication Providers who also Provide Patient Care, (3) Other Activity Pharmacists, (4) Patient Care Providers Who also Provide Medication, and (5) Patient Care Providers. The results showed that, in 2009, 41% of U.S. pharmacists were devoted wholly to medication providing (Medication Providers). Forty-three percent of pharmacists contributed significantly to patient care service provision (Medication Providers who also Provide Patient Care, Patient Care Providers who also Provide Medication, and Patient Care Providers) and the remaining 16% (Other Activity Pharmacists) contributed most of their time to business / organization management, research, education, and other health-system improvement activities. Conclusions: Based on the findings, we propose that the pharmacy profession currently has, and will continue to build, capacity for contributing to the U.S. health care system in new roles for which they have been identified. However, as shifts in professional roles occur, a great deal of capacity is required related to new service provision. Resources are scarce, so an understanding of the most appropriate timing for making such changes can lead to cost-effective use of limited resources for improving patient care

Fano resonance in a cavity-reflector hybrid system.

© 2017 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.We present the results of transport measurements in a hybrid system consisting of an arch-shaped quantum point contact (QPC) and a reflector; together, they form an electronic cavity in between them. On tuning the arch-QPC and the reflector, an asymmetric resonance peak in resistance is observed at the one-dimension to two-dimension transition. Moreover, a dip in resistance near the pinch-off of the QPC is found to be strongly dependent on the reflector voltage. These two structures fit very well with the Fano line shape. The Fano resonance was found to get weakened on applying a transverse magnetic field, and smeared out at 100 mT. In addition, the Fano-like shape exhibited a strong temperature dependence and gradually smeared out when the temperature was increased from 1.5 to 20 K. The results might be useful in realizing devices for quantum information processing

Effects of Space Charge, Dopants, and Strain Fields on Surfaces and Grain Boundaries in YBCO Compounds

Statistical thermodynamical and kinetically-limited models are applied to study the origin and evolution of space charges and band-bending effects at low angle [001] tilt grain boundaries in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_7$ and the effects of Ca doping upon them. Atomistic simulations, using shell models of interatomic forces, are used to calculate the energetics of various relevant point defects. The intrinsic space charge profiles at ideal surfaces are calculated for two limits of oxygen contents, i.e. YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_6$ and YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_7$. At one limit, O$_6$, the system is an insulator, while at O$_7$, a metal. This is analogous to the intrinsic and doping cases of semiconductors. The site selections for doping calcium and creating holes are also investigated by calculating the heat of solution. In a continuum treatment, the volume of formation of doping calcium at Y-sites is computed. It is then applied to study the segregation of calcium ions to grain boundaries in the Y-123 compound. The influences of the segregation of calcium ions on space charge profiles are finally studied to provide one guide for understanding the improvement of transport properties by doping calcium at grain boundaries in Y-123 compound.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure