Fees and Surcharging in automatic teller machine networks: Non-bank ATM providers versus large banks

This paper develops a spacial model of ATM networks to explore the implications for banks and non-banks of interchange fees, foreign fees and surcharges applied to transactions by customers at other than an own-bank ATM. Surcharging raises the price (foreign fee plus surcharge) paid by customers above the joint profit-maximizing level achieved by setting the interchange fee at marginal cost and not surcharging. Similar size banks would agree not to surcharge, but such an agreement is typically not possible between a bank and a non-bank. A high cost of teller transactions modifies the tendency towards high ATM fees.

Investigation of single crystal microwave acoustical delay line materials Final report

Single crystals for microwave acoustical equipment improved by MgO dopin

Materials technology assessment for stirling engines

A materials technology assessment of high temperature components in the improved (metal) and advanced (ceramic) Stirling engines was undertaken to evaluate the current state-of-the-art of metals and ceramics, identify materials research and development required to support the development of automotive Stirling engines, and to recommend materials technology programs to assure material readiness concurrent with engine system development programs. The most critical component for each engine is identified and some of the material problem areas are discussed

Magnesium oxide doping reduces acoustic wave attenuation in lithium metatantalate and lithium metaniobate crystals

Single crystals of lithium metatantalate and lithium metaniobate, grown from melts having different stoichiometries and different amounts of magnesium oxide, show that doping lowers temperature-independent portion of attenuation of acoustic waves. Doped crystals possess optical properties well suited for electro-optical and photoelastic applications

Utterance Selection Model of Language Change

We present a mathematical formulation of a theory of language change. The theory is evolutionary in nature and has close analogies with theories of population genetics. The mathematical structure we construct similarly has correspondences with the Fisher-Wright model of population genetics, but there are significant differences. The continuous time formulation of the model is expressed in terms of a Fokker-Planck equation. This equation is exactly soluble in the case of a single speaker and can be investigated analytically in the case of multiple speakers who communicate equally with all other speakers and give their utterances equal weight. Whilst the stationary properties of this system have much in common with the single-speaker case, time-dependent properties are richer. In the particular case where linguistic forms can become extinct, we find that the presence of many speakers causes a two-stage relaxation, the first being a common marginal distribution that persists for a long time as a consequence of ultimate extinction being due to rare fluctuations.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figure

No Evidence for Orbital Loop Currents in Charge Ordered YBa2_2Cu3_3O6+x_{6+x} from Polarized Neutron Diffraction

It has been proposed that the pseudogap state of underdoped cuprate superconductors may be due to a transition to a phase which has circulating currents within each unit cell. Here, we use polarized neutron diffraction to search for the corresponding orbital moments in two samples of underdoped YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$ with doping levels $p=0.104$ and 0.123. In contrast to some other reports using polarized neutrons, but in agreement with nuclear magnetic resonance and muon spin rotation measurements, we find no evidence for the appearance of magnetic order below 300 K. Thus, our experiment suggests that such order is not an intrinsic property of high-quality cuprate superconductor single crystals. Our results provide an upper bound for a possible orbital loop moment which depends on the pattern of currents within the unit cell. For example, for the CC-$\theta_{II}$ pattern proposed by Varma, we find that the ordered moment per current loop is less than 0.013 $\mu_B$ for $p=0.104$.Comment: Comments in arXiv:1710.08173v1 fully addresse

The influence of risk factors associated with captive rearing on post-release survival in translocated cirl buntings Emberiza cirlus in the UK

Population decline resulting from agricultural intensification led to contraction of the range of the cirl bunting Emberiza cirlus in the UK to a small area of south Devon. As part of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan for the species, a project to re-establish a population in suitable habitat in Cornwall was undertaken during 2006–2011, in which chicks were removed from the nest in Devon, hand-reared and then delayed-released. The survival of the birds to four time points in the year after release was analysed in relation to the effect of rearing factors, using a multivariable logistic regression model. Individuals with higher body weight at capture were more likely to survive to 1 January and 1 May in the year following release, and individuals released in June and July were more likely to survive than those released in August. Individuals released in 2006 and 2011 had a higher survival rate than those released during 2007–2010. Timing of capture, time spent at each stage in captivity, medication and the detection of parasites in the brood had no significant effect. Immunosuppressive disease, weather factors and predator activity may have led to some of the observed differences in survival. This analysis provides evidence with which to plan future translocation projects for cirl buntings and other passerine birds

Low-velocity impact craters in ice and ice-saturated sand with implications for Martian crater count ages

We produced a series of decimeter-sized impact craters in blocks of ice near 0°C and −70°C and in ice-saturated sand near −70°C as a preliminary investigation of cratering in materials analogous to those found on Mars and the outer solar system satellites. The projectiles used were standard 0.22 and 0.30 caliber bullets fired at velocities between 0.3 and 1.5 km/s, with kinetic energies at impact between 10^9 and 4×10^(10) ergs. Crater diameters in the ice-saturated sand were ∼2 times larger than craters in the same energy and velocity range in competent blocks of granite, basalt and cement. Craters in ice were ∼3 times larger. If this dependence of crater size on strength persists to large hypervelocity impact craters, then surfaces of geologic units composed of ice or ice-saturated soil would have greater crater count ages than rocky surfaces with identical influx histories. The magnitude of the correction to crater counts required by this strength effect is comparable to the magnitudes of corrections required by variations in impact velocity and surface gravity used in determining relative interplanetary chronologies. The relative sizes of craters in ice and ice-saturated sand imply that the tensile strength of ice-saturated sand is a strong inverse function of temperature. If this is true, then Martian impact crater energy versus diameter scaling may also be a function of latitude

Cluster Correlation in Mixed Models

We evaluate the dependence of the cluster correlation length r_c on the mean intercluster separation D_c, for three models with critical matter density, vanishing vacuum energy (Lambda = 0) and COBE normalized: a tilted CDM (tCDM) model (n=0.8) and two blue mixed models with two light massive neutrinos yielding Omega_h = 0.26 and 0.14 (MDM1 and MDM2, respectively). All models approach the observational value of sigma_8 (and, henceforth, the observed cluster abundance) and are consistent with the observed abundance of Damped Lyman_alpha systems. Mixed models have a motivation in recent results of neutrino physics; they also agree with the observed value of the ratio sigma_8/sigma_25, yielding the spectral slope parameter Gamma, and nicely fit LCRS reconstructed spectra. We use parallel AP3M simulations, performed in a wide box (side 360/h Mpc) and with high mass and distance resolution, enabling us to build artificial samples of clusters, whose total number and mass range allow to cover the same D_c interval inspected through APM and Abell cluster clustering data. We find that the tCDM model performs substantially better than n=1 critical density CDM models. Our main finding, however, is that mixed models provide a surprisingly good fit of cluster clustering data.Comment: 22 pages + 10 Postscript figures. Accepted for publication in Ap