71,557 research outputs found
Voluntary Sterilization of Inmates for Reduced Prison Sentences
In May 2017, a Tennessee judge issued a standing order allowing inmates to receive thirty daysâ jail credit in exchange for undergoing a voluntary sterilization procedure. Although the order was ultimately rescinded, this Article will address the constitutional and ethical concerns that a district court would have considered had the order not been rescinded. While inmates can always choose to waive their constitutional rights, the coercive nature of prisonsâexplained in the unconstitutional conditions doctrineâmay compromise a prisonerâs ability to provide voluntary consent. The constitutionality of the order largely depends on the level of scrutiny a court applies. Regardless of the orderâs constitutionality, the adverse ethical and social ramifications outweigh any potential benefits that could come from such an order. This order would also give too much power to state governments over an individualâs reproductive freedoms. Instead of automatically reducing an inmateâs sentence after undergoing a sterilization procedure, drug offenders should have the opportunity to choose from several different birth control options that could possibly lead to a reduced sentence
Plain Reading, Subtle Meaning: Rethinking the IOIA and the Immunity of International Organizations
Immunity is freedom from liability, and as such, it can quite literally provide a âget out of jail freeâ card. In the United States, international organizations face uncertainty about the scope of their immunity, which is provided by the International Organizations Immunities Act (IOIA). The D.C. Circuit has found that international organizations enjoy absolute immunity under the IOIA. Conversely, the Third Circuit recently held that international organizations are only entitled to restrictive immunity, which limits immunity to claims involving an organizationâs public acts and does not exempt them from suits based on their commercial or private conduct.
This Note contends that a plain reading of the IOIA, combined with a full understanding of the history and legislative purpose behind the immunity of international organizations, presents a third interpretation. It concludes that the IOIA requires judicial deference to immunity determinations by the executive branch, which provides the flexibility necessary to allow international organizations to operate without undue interference
First Result of Net-Charge Jet-Correlations from STAR
We presented results on azimuthal correlation of net-charge with high
trigger particles. It is found that the net-charge correlation shape is similar
to that of total-charge. On the near-side, the net-charge and total-charge
spectra have similar shape and both are harder than the inclusives. On
the away-side, the correlated spectra are not much harder than the inclusives,
and the net-charge/total-charge ratio increases with and is similar to
the inclusive ratio
Geological remote sensing: Identification and mapping of rock types for non-renewable resources
Efforts concentrated on developing a technique for relating laboratory spectral reflectance curves of known rocks and vegetation on LANDSAT multispectral images. The techniques involves determination of the laboratory spectral signature of a material of interest and searching a stack of spatially registered multispectral images for materials with the desired spectral signature. Changes in spectral reflectance caused by vegetation cover were also investigated in surface samples from Hawaii
A ball trunnion capture latch
The Ball Trunnion Capture Latch described was developed and designed to restrain a spacecraft deployable appendage in three translational directions. The latch is capable of supporting an appendage during STS ascent and landing events and is capable of releasing and restowing an appendage distorted in three translational directions by thermal growth. The requirements, design, analyses, and tests conducted on a development unit of the latch are discussed
Uniform convergence of Vapnik--Chervonenkis classes under ergodic sampling
We show that if is a complete separable metric space and
is a countable family of Borel subsets of with
finite VC dimension, then, for every stationary ergodic process with values in
, the relative frequencies of sets converge
uniformly to their limiting probabilities. Beyond ergodicity, no assumptions
are imposed on the sampling process, and no regularity conditions are imposed
on the elements of . The result extends existing work of Vapnik
and Chervonenkis, among others, who have studied uniform convergence for i.i.d.
and strongly mixing processes. Our method of proof is new and direct: it does
not rely on symmetrization techniques, probability inequalities or mixing
conditions. The uniform convergence of relative frequencies for VC-major and
VC-graph classes of functions under ergodic sampling is established as a
corollary of the basic result for sets.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOP511 the Annals of
Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
The Determinants of Credit Ratings in the United Kingdom Insurance Industry
Executive Summary
The Determinants of Credit Ratings in the United Kingdom
Insurance Industry
Academic researchers have devoted a considerable amount of attention to the activities of
credit rating agencies over the past 20 years, focusing in particular on the agenciesâ potential role
in overseeing corporate financial strength and promoting the efficient operation of financial
markets. Examinations of credit rating practices has recently extended to the insurance industry,
where the complex technical nature of market transactions leads to policyholders, investors and
others facing particularly acute information asymmetries at the point-of-sale. Published credit
ratings are therefore seen as helping to alleviate imperfections in insurance markets by providing a
third party opinion on the adequacy of an insurerâs financial health and the likelihood of it meeting
obligations to policyholders and others in the future. Although the United Kingdom (UK)
insurance market is now one of the five largest in the world, relatively little is known about the
practices of the major firms and policy-makers which influence its operations. In particular, whilst
the determinants of rating agenciesâ assessments of United States (US) insurers is well
documented, published studies have yet to provide comprehensive evidence about insurance
company ratings in the UK. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the ratings awarded
by two of the worldâs leading agencies â A.M. Best and Standard and Poor (S&P) â and
establishing the extent to which organizational variables can help predict: (i) insurance firmsâ
decision to be rated; and (ii) the assigned ratings themselves.
Our sample of UK data comprises ratings made by A.M. Best and S&P over the period
1993-1997 for both life and property-liability insurers. The panel data we use is ordinal in nature
and is therefore analysed using an ordered probit model. However, because neither A.M. Best or
S&P rate the full population of UK insurance firms our data set is potentially subject to selfselection
bias and we therefore extend the model to correct for such problems. In particular, the
paper examines the effect of eight firm-specific variables (namely, capital adequacy, profitability,
liquidity, growth, size, mutual/stockowner status, reinsurance level, and short/long-term nature of
business) on the ratings awarded by the two agencies, as well as on insurance firmsâ decisions to
volunteer for the ratings in the first place.
In general terms, our evidence concurs with earlier US findings, and suggests that
although the decision to be rated by either of the agencies is largely influenced by a common set
of factors, the determinants of the ratings themselves appear to differ. Specifically, our first main
finding is that insurersâ decisions to be rated by either A.M. Best or S&P is positively related to
surplus growth, profitability and leverage. Second, while we find that A.M. Bestâs ratings are
positively linked to profitability and liquidity, as well as being generally higher for mutual insurers,
the findings for S&P differ substantially. Although liquidity again exerted a positive influence on
assigned ratings, the only other statistically significant variable was financial leverage, which had a
negative sign.
We believe that the results of our research are of potential importance for companies
operating in insurance markets as well as for policy-makers, brokers and others. For example, the
evidence that mutual insurers are generally assigned higher ratings than stock insurers suggests
that certain publicly-traded insurers, in particular new entrants, might not possess sound financial
strength and may require closer regulatory scrutiny than other, more established, insurance firms.
In addition, the finding that liquidity has a significantly positive effect on ratings assigned by two
of the worldâs leading credit agencies should provide a measure of confidence about the
robustness of the ratings to industry regulators, policyholders and investors in the UK. This could
imply that external ratings might eventually play a role in substituting for costly industry
regulation. The study concludes that although the factors influencing the decision to be rated by
A.M. Best or S&P are broadly the same, a degree of variability exists in the variables which
influence the actual ratings themselves. Insurance company managers should be aware of this
when contemplating whether to seek an independent rating and which agency to choose for the
assessment. We therefore believe that this study fills an important gap in the literature about key
players in the important UK insurance market and provides a basis for the conduct of future
research
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