Flow processes in overexpanded chemical rocket nozzles. Part 3: Methods for the aimed flow separation and side load reduction

Methods aimed at reduction of overexpansion and side load resulting from asymmetric flow separation for rocket nozzles with a high opening ratio are described. The methods employ additional measures for nozzles with a fixed opening ratio. The flow separation can be controlled by several types of nozzle inserts, the properties of which are discussed. Side loads and overexpansion can be reduced by adapting the shape of the nozzle and taking other additional measures for controlled separation of the boundary layer, such as trip wires

The Impact of Audit Quality on the Share Prices of Quoted Companies in Nigeria

This study is used to determine whether Audit Quality has any significant impact on and relationship with Market Value per Share of companies in Nigeria. Archival data were extracted from annual reports of 57 companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) between 2006 and 2011. Audit Quality was estimated using Audit Firm Size, Audit Fees, Auditor Tenure and Audit Client Importance. Market Price per Share (MPS) was derived directly from CSCS Cash – Craft.  Multiple regression analyses were conducted on the data. The results of the tests show that Audit Quality exerts significant influence on the MPS of quoted companies in Nigeria. In order to improve the quality of audit and minimize earnings manipulations by firms in Nigeria, we recommend that regulatory agencies -  professional  accountancy bodies, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, the National Assembly, and  Securities and Exchange Commission should issue authoritative standard and  framework for audit quality; companies should improve their earnings quality only through sales growth, cost control and cost reduction strategies; companies in Nigeria should present distinct statements of earnings quality while auditors should conduct earnings quality assessment and issue Integrated Audit Quality Assurance Report by adapting or adopting current best practices statutorily backed by earnings monitoring of companies in Nigeria.   Keywords: Audit Quality, Earnings Reports, Financial Statements, Market price Per Shar

Using global interpolation to evaluate the Biot-Savart integral for deformable elliptical Gaussian vortex elements

This paper introduces a new method for approximating the Biot-Savart integral for elliptical Gaussian functions using high-order interpolation and compares it to an existing method based on small aspect ratio asymptotics. The new evaluation technique uses polynomials to approximate the kernel corresponding to the integral representation of the streamfunction. We determine the polynomial coefficients by interpolating precomputed values from look-up tables over a wide range of aspect ratios. When implemented in a full nonlinear vortex method, we find that the new technique is almost three times faster and unlike the asymptotic method, provides uniform accuracy over the full range of aspect ratios. As a proof-of-concept for large scale computations, we use the new technique to calculate inviscid axisymmetrization and filamentation of a two-dimensional elliptical fluid vortex. We compare our results with those from a pseudo-spectral computation and from electron vortex experiments, and find good agreement between the three approaches

Towards Adapting ImageNet to Reality: Scalable Domain Adaptation with Implicit Low-rank Transformations

Images seen during test time are often not from the same distribution as images used for learning. This problem, known as domain shift, occurs when training classifiers from object-centric internet image databases and trying to apply them directly to scene understanding tasks. The consequence is often severe performance degradation and is one of the major barriers for the application of classifiers in real-world systems. In this paper, we show how to learn transform-based domain adaptation classifiers in a scalable manner. The key idea is to exploit an implicit rank constraint, originated from a max-margin domain adaptation formulation, to make optimization tractable. Experiments show that the transformation between domains can be very efficiently learned from data and easily applied to new categories. This begins to bridge the gap between large-scale internet image collections and object images captured in everyday life environments

The Dynamics of External Financing

A dynamic process underlying firms' discrete financial choices has previously been found, but without controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, this dependence can either be of a "true" nature or an effect of firm-specific characteristics that we cannot observe. This study extends previous research focusing on firms' discrete external financing decision by adapting a model by Honoré and Kyriazidou (2000), which accommodates both fixed effects and a lagged dependent variable, which makes it possible to establish the nature of the dependence. We find that there is a smoothing of financing, even after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, and also that unobserved heterogeneity plays a significant explanatory role.Corporate finance; Discrete choice; State dependence

Fairness Properties of Constrained Market Equilibria

This paper studies the notion of fairness in pure exchange economies involving uncertainty and asymmetric information. We propose a new concept of coalitional fair allocation in order to solve the tension that may exist between efficiency and envy-freeness when the equity of allocations is evaluated at the {\it interim} stage. Some characterizations of constrained market equilibria are derived extending the analysis to economies that have both an atomic and an atomless sector.Mixed markets, coalitional fairness, envy, efficiency, asymmetric information

Asymmetric Information, Bank Lending and Implicit Contracts : The Winner's Curse

The purpose of this note is to point out an error in a widely cited paper by Sharpe (1990) on long-term bank-firm relationships and to provide a correct analysis of the problem. The model studies repeated lending under asymmetric information which leads to winner's-curse type distortions of competition. Contrary to the claims in Sharpe (1990), this game only has an equilibriuim in mixed strategies, which features a partial informational lock-in by firms and random termination of lending relationships.Author-Name: banking relationships; competition under asymmetric information; informational lock-in; auctions

Memory in Contracts: The Experience of the EBRD (1991-2003)

The objective of this paper is to identify the role of memory as a screening device in repeated contracts with asymmetric information in financial intermediation. We use an original dataset from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. We propose a simple empirical method to capture the role of memory using the client’s reputation. Our results unambiguously isolate the dominant effect of memory on the bank’s lending decisions over market factors in the case of established clients.Financial contract,Empirical contract theory,Reputation,Asymmetric

Gravity, Bilateral Agreements, and Trade Diversion in the Americas

Krishna (1998) shows that a bilateral agreement between two countries render a multilateral agreement less attractive if the bilateral agreement is trade diverting. This paper combines Krishna’s model with the empirical approach of Anderson and vaGravity models, asymmetric tariffs, trade diversion