43,015 research outputs found
Rating assignments: Lessons from international banks
This paper estimates ordered logit and probit regression models for bank ratings which also include a country index to capture country-specific variation. The empirical findings provide support to the hypothesis that the individual international bank ratings assigned by Fitch Ratings are underpinned by fundamental quantitative financial analyses. Also, there is strong evidence of a country effect. Our model is shown to provide accurate predictions of bank ratings for the period prior to the 2007 – 2008 banking crisis based upon publicly available information. However, our results also suggest that quantitative models are not likely to be able to predict ratings with complete accuracy. Furthermore, we find that both quantitative models and rating agencies are likely to produce highly inaccurate predictions of ratings during periods of financial instability
A comparison of results from two simulators used for studies of astronaut maneuvering units
A comparison of the results from a fixed-base, six-degree-of -freedom simulator and a moving-base, three-degree-of-freedom simulator was made for a close-in, EVA-type maneuvering task in which visual cues of a target spacecraft were used for guidance. The maneuvering unit (the foot-controlled maneuvering unit of Skylab Experiment T020) employed an on-off acceleration command control system operated entirely by the feet. Maneuvers by two test subjects were made for the fixed-base simulator in six and three degrees of freedom and for the moving-base simulator in uncontrolled and controlled, EVA-type visual cue conditions. Comparisons of pilot ratings and 13 different quantitative parameters from the two simulators are made. Different results were obtained from the two simulators, and the effects of limited degrees of freedom and uncontrolled visual cues are discussed
Neutron irradiation of Am-241 effectively produces curium
Computer study was made on the production of multicurie amounts of highly alpha-active curium 242 from americium 241 irradiation. The information available includes curium 242 yields, curium composition, irradiation data, and production techniques and safeguards
Layering Transitions and Solvation Forces in an Asymmetrically Confined Fluid
We consider a simple fluid confined between two parallel walls (substrates),
separated by a distance L. The walls exert competing surface fields so that one
wall is attractive and may be completely wet by liquid (it is solvophilic)
while the other is solvophobic. Such asymmetric confinement is sometimes termed
a `Janus Interface'. The second wall is: (i) purely repulsive and therefore
completely dry (contact angle 180 degrees) or (ii) weakly attractive and
partially dry (the contact angle is typically in the range 160-170 degrees). At
low temperatures, but above the bulk triple point, we find using classical
density functional theory (DFT) that the fluid is highly structured in the
liquid part of the density profile. In case (i) a sequence of layering
transitions occurs: as L is increased at fixed chemical potential (mu) close to
bulk gas--liquid coexistence, new layers of liquid-like density develop
discontinuously. In contrast to confinement between identical walls, the
solvation force is repulsive for all wall separations and jumps discontinuously
at each layering transition and the excess grand potential exhibits many
metastable minima as a function of the adsorption. For a fixed temperature
T=0.56Tc, where Tc is the bulk critical temperature, we determine the
transition lines in the L, mu plane. In case (ii) we do not find layering
transitions and the solvation force oscillates about zero. We discuss how our
mean-field DFT results might be altered by including effects of fluctuations
and comment on how the phenomenology we have revealed might be relevant for
experimental and simulation studies of water confined between hydrophilic and
hydrophobic substrates, emphasizing it is important to distinguish between
cases (i) and (ii).Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure
INITIAL WEIGHT LOSS OF PLASTICS IN A VACUUM AT TEMPERATURES FROM 80 DEG TO 500 DEG F
Initial weight loss of plastics in a vacuu
Multivariate Diophantine equations with many solutions
We show that for each n-tuple of positive rational integers (a_1,..,a_n)
there are sets of primes S of arbitrarily large cardinality s such that the
solutions of the equation a_1x_1+...+a_nx_n=1 with the x_i all S-units are not
contained in fewer than exp((4+o(1))s^{1/2}(log s)^{-1/2}) proper linear
subspaces of C^n. This generalizes a result of Erdos, Stewart and Tijdeman for
m=2 [Compositio 36 (1988), 37-56].
Furthermore we prove that for any algebraic number field K of degree n, any
integer m with 1<=m<n, and any sufficiently large s there are integers
b_0,...,b_m in a number field which are linearly independent over the
rationals, and prime numbers p_1,...,p_s, such that the norm polynomial
equation |N_{K/Q}(b_0+b_1x_1+...+b_mx_m)|=p_1^{z_1}...p_s^{z_s} has at least
exp{(1+o(1)){n/m}s^{m/n}(log s)^{-1+m/n}) solutions in integers
x_1,..,x_m,z_1,..,z_s. This generalizes a result of Moree and Stewart [Indag.
Math. 1 (1990), 465-472].
Our main tool, also established in this paper, is an effective lower bound
for the number of ideals in a number field K of norm <=X composed of prime
ideals which lie outside a given finite set of prime ideals T and which have
norm <=Y. This generalizes a result of Canfield, Erdos and Pomerance [J. Number
Th. 17 (1983), 1-28], and of Moree and Stewart (see above).Comment: 29 page
Adobe Flash as a medium for online experimentation: a test of reaction time measurement capabilities
Adobe Flash can be used to run complex psychological experiments over the Web. We examined the reliability of using Flash to measure reaction times (RTs) using a simple binary-choice task implemented both in Flash and in a Linux-based system known to record RTs with millisecond accuracy. Twenty-four participants were tested in the laboratory using both implementations; they also completed the Flash version on computers of their own choice outside the lab. RTs from the trials run on Flash outside the lab were approximately 20 msec slower than those from trials run on Flash in the lab, which in turn were approximately 10 msec slower than RTs from the trials run on the Linux-based system (baseline condition). RT SDs were similar in all conditions, suggesting that although Flash may overestimate RTs slightly, it does not appear to add significant noise to the data recorded
Solid state image sensor research, phase I
Solid state image sensor in infrared and visible region
Development of sprayed ceramic seal systems for turbine gas path sealing
A ceramic seal system is reported that employs plasma-sprayed graded metal/ceramic yttria stabilized zirconium oxide (YSZ). The performance characteristics of several YSZ configurations were determined through rig testing for thermal shock resistance, abradability, and erosion resistance. Results indicate that this type of sealing system offers the potential to meet operating requirements of future gas turbine engines
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