Do student loans improve accessibility to higher education and student performance? An impact study of the SOFES program in Mexico

Financial aid to students in tertiary education can contribute to human capital accumulation through two channels: increased enrolment and improved student performance. We analyse the quantitative importance of both channels in the context of a student loan program (SOFES) implemented at private universities in Mexico. With regard to the first channel, results from the Mexican household survey indicate that financial support has a strongly positive effect on university enrolment. Two data sources are used to investigate the second channel, student performance. Administrative data provided by SOFES are analysed using a Regression-Discontinuity design, and survey data enable us to perform a similar analysis using a different control group. The empirical results suggest that SOFES recipients (i) show better academic performance, and (ii) tend to have more part-time jobs than students without a credit from SOFES.

Antenna pattern of DUAL detectors of gravitational waves and its exploitation in a network of advanced interferometers

We investigate the directional sensitivity to plane gravitational waves (GWs) of DUAL detectors of cylindrical shape. Calculations make use of the finite element method to simulate the responses to the GW Riemann tensor of a single-mass DUAL (SMD) and of a tapered cylinder (TC) in their wide sensitivity bandwidth. We show that one SMD or a pair of TCs is able to cover both GW polarization amplitudes from almost all incoming directions. We discuss the achievable enhancement in tackling the inverse problem for high frequency [~(2–5) kHz] GWs by adding a TC detector to the future advanced LIGO–VIRGO network

Detecting binary compact-object mergers with gravitational waves: Understanding and Improving the sensitivity of the PyCBC search

We present an improved search for binary compact-object mergers using a network of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. We model a volumetric, isotropic source population and incorporate the resulting distribution over signal amplitude, time delay, and coalescence phase into the ranking of candidate events. We describe an improved modeling of the background distribution, and demonstrate incorporating a prior model of the binary mass distribution in the ranking of candidate events. We find a $\sim 10\%$ and $\sim 20\%$ increase in detection volume for simulated binary neutron star and neutron star--binary black hole systems, respectively, corresponding to a reduction of the false alarm rates assigned to signals by between one and two orders of magnitude.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, as accepted by Ap

Isoscalar off-shell effects in threshold pion production from pd collisions

We test the presence of pion-nucleon isoscalar off-shell effects in the $pd\to \pi^+ t$ reaction around the threshold region. We find that these effects significantly modify the production cross section and that they may provide the missing strength needed to reproduce the data at threshold.Comment: 6 pages, REVTeX, twocolumn, including 3 figures (Postscript), uses psfig, updated and extended versio

Nuclear effects in positive pion electroproduction on the deuteron near threshold

Positive pion electroproduction from the deuteron near threshold has been considered within an approach based on the unitary transformation method. The gauge independence of the treatment is provided by using an explicitly gauge independent expression for the reaction amplitude. The results of calculations for kinematics of the experiments on forward-angle $\pi^+$ meson electroproduction accomplished at Saclay and Jefferson Laboratory are discussed and compared with those given by the impulse approximation. It is shown that the observed behaviour of the cross sections is in accordance with the calculations based on the pion-nucleon dynamics. In particular, the pion production rate suppression in the $^2H(e,e'\pi^+)nn$ reaction compared to that for the $^1H(e,e'\pi^+)n$ one can be due to such ``nuclear medium'' effects as nucleon motion and binding along with Pauli blocking in the final $nn$ state.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure