Use of Dialdehyde Starch in Coating Color Formulation

A literature survey was conducted to determine what work, if any, had been done on dialdehyde starch as a coating adhesive. As a result of the survey, it was decided that experimental work would be started with the hope of overcoming some of the difficulties which confronted previous investigators and investigating further the use of dialdehyde starch as an adhesive. After experimental preparation and evaluation of the coated and aftertreated sheets, the following conclusions were formed: 1. The addition of ten percent borax buffered or bisulphite buffered dialdehyde starch to conventional oxidized starch increases the surface strength of the coating as well as the wet rub resistance. 2. Aftertreatment with the starch dispersions increases the surface strength of the coating and the wet rub resistance. 3. Bisulphite buffered dialdehyde starch is a better coating adhesive and waterproofer than borax buffered dialdehyde starch

Multiplication Operators on Weighted Banach Spaces of a Tree

We study multiplication operators on the weighted Banach spaces of an infinite tree. We characterize the bounded and the compact operators, as well as determine the operator norm. In addition, we determine the spectrum of the bounded multiplication operators and characterize the isometries. Finally, we study the multiplication operators between the weighted Banach spaces and the Lipschitz space by characterizing the bounded and the compact operators, determine estimates on the operator norm, and show there are no isometries

A tale of two cities: Annapolis and St. Augustine balancing preservation and community values in an era of rising seas

Annapolis, Maryland, and St. Augustine, Florida, are colonial cities on the East Coast of the United States with national historic landmark designations recognizing the strong blends of natural and cultural resources that make each community unique. Annapolis faces nuisance flooding that is challenging the above-ground resources and the natural settings and cultural frameworks that support and enhance them. St. Augustine has witnessed dozens of hurricanes and frequent coastal flooding, impacting the delicate balance of natural and cultural resources in a fast-growing population with significant vulnerabilities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides a model for determining “community value” in cultural resource hazard mitigation planning. These communities can prioritize the protection of historic places threatened by natural disasters by comparing that model against the United States Secretary of the Interior’s factors for determining historic integrity. This framework can serve as a model approach for evaluating public sentiment for the protection and preservation of historic places within the larger context of disaster preparedness and recovery. This can enable communities to evaluate and prioritize places that matter to prepare for and recover from rising waters

Employees’ Choice of Method of Pay

Who chooses what type of pay? The costs and benefits of “flexible” and “cafeteria-style” benefit plans have been discussed for some time. Additionally, many papers have considered the potential costs and benefits of certain types of pay plans (e.g. salaries versus piece rates). In this paper, we use detailed data from a specific firm that annually set the total compensation level for each of its employees but then did something extremely unusual. At the start of each pay year, the firm set an exchange rate for the dollar trade-off between cash pay and stock option pay. It then gave every employee nearly complete choice over the fraction of their pay that was contingent (stock options, bonus) versus guaranteed (salary). There are several empirical findings. There is substantial variation in the choice of contingent pay with some workers choosing almost all base pay and others choosing almost entirely stock options. Younger employees, more experienced employees, higher paid employees, and male employees are more likely to allocate a larger fraction of their total compensation to at-risk alternatives. The robustness of these results varies somewhat depending on the empirical specification and set of covariates used

The Value of Stock Options to Non-Executive Employees

This study empirically investigates the value employees place on stock options using information from the option exercise behavior of individuals. Employees hold options for another period if the value from holding them and reserving the right to exercise them later is higher than the value of exercising them immediately and collecting a profit equal to the stock price minus the exercise price. This simple model implies the hazard describing employee exercise behavior reveals information about the value to employees of holding options another time period. We show the parameters of this model are identified with data on multiple option grants per employee and we apply this model to the disposition of options received in the 1990s by a sample of over 2000 middle-level managers from a large, established firm outside of manufacturing. Exercise behavior is modeled using a random effects probit model of monthly exercise behavior that is estimated using simulated maximum likelihood estimation methods. Our estimates show there is substantial heterogeneity (observed and unobserved) among employees in the value they place on their options. Our estimates show most employees value their options at a value greater than the option's Black-Scholes value.

Economic Valuation Models for Insurers

Recently much attention has been given to the approaches insurers undertake in valuing their liabilities and assets. For example, in 1994 the American Academy of Actuaries created a Fair Valuation of Liabilities Task Force to address the issue. In 1997, the Academy established a Valuation Law Task Force and a Valuation Tools Working Group to investigate the various valuation approaches extant and to make recommendations on which models are best suited to the task. Much of the published work has focused on attributes of the various models, their strengths and shortcomings. Some of the work has addressed the larger questions, but in our view, it is useful and necessary to provide a taxonomy of approaches and evaluate them in a systematic way in accordance with how well they achieve their aims. In this paper we focus primarily on the economic valuation of insurance liabilities, although we do address some valuation issues for assets. We begin in Section I by defining insurance liabilities. Next, in Section II, we discuss the criteria for a good economic valuation model. This is followed by a taxonomy of valuation models in Section III. In Section IV, we examine insurance liabilities in the context of this taxonomy and identify the minimum requirements of an economic valuation approach that purports to value them adequately. An illustration of the application of a modern valuation model is given in Section V. We conclude in Section VI by discussing some limitations of our analysis, and offer some recommendations for implementation.

Classical electron mass and fields 2

Continued here is the development of a model of the electron (HYDRA), which includes rotational and magnetic terms. The atomic electron state is discussed and a comparison is made with a simple harmonic oscillator. Experimental data is reviewed that supports the possibility of a new lepton

Modeling of the heat transfer in bypass transitional boundary-layer flows

A low Reynolds number k-epsilon turbulence model and conditioned momentum, energy and turbulence equations were used to predict bypass transition heat transfer on a flat plate in a high-disturbance environment with zero pressure gradient. The use of conditioned equations was demonstrated to be an improvement over the use of the global-time-averaged equations for the calculation of velocity profiles and turbulence intensity profiles in the transition region of a boundary layer. The approach of conditioned equations is extended to include heat transfer and a modeling of transition events is used to predict transition onset and the extent of transition on a flat plate. The events, which describe the boundary layer at the leading edge, result in boundary-layer regions consisting of: (1) the laminar, (2) pseudolaminar, (3) transitional, and (4) turbulent boundary layers. The modeled transition events were incorporated into the TEXSTAN 2-D boundary-layer code which is used to numerically predict the heat transfer. The numerical predictions in general compared well with the experimental data and revealed areas where additional experimental information is needed

Refraction of shear zones in granular materials

We study strain localization in slow shear flow focusing on layered granular materials. A heretofore unknown effect is presented here. We show that shear zones are refracted at material interfaces in analogy with refraction of light beams in optics. This phenomenon can be obtained as a consequence of a recent variational model of shear zones. The predictions of the model are tested and confirmed by 3D discrete element simulations. We found that shear zones follow Snell's law of light refraction.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, minor changes, jounal ref. adde

Optical Dielectric Functions of III-V Semiconductors in Wurtzite Phase

Optical properties of semiconductors can exhibit strong polarization dependence due to crystalline anisotropy. A number of recent experiments have shown that the photoluminescence intensity in free standing nanowires is polarization dependent. One contribution to this effect is the anisotropy of the dielectric function due to the fact that most nanowires crystalize in the wurtzite form. While little is known experimentally about the band structures wurtzite phase III-V semiconductors, we have previously predicted the bulk band structure of nine III-V semiconductors in wurtzite phase.Here, we predict the frequency dependent dielectric functions for nine non-Nitride wurtzite phase III-V semiconductors (AlP, AlAs, AlSb, GaP, GaAs, GaSb, InP, InAs and InSb). Their complex dielectric functions are calculated in the dipole approximation by evaluating the momentum matrix elements on a dense grid of special k-points using empirical pseudopotential wave functions. Corrections to the momentum matrix elements accounting for the missing core states are made using a scaling factor which is determined by using the optical sum rules on the calculated dielectric functions for the zincblende polytypes. The dielectric function is calculated for polarizations perpendicular and parallel to the c-axis of the crystal