Multi-Wavelength Properties of Barred Galaxies in the Local Universe. I: Virgo Cluster

We study in detail how the barred galaxy fraction varies as a function of luminosity, HI gas mass, morphology and color in the Virgo cluster in order to provide a well defined, statistically robust measurement of the bar fraction in the local universe spanning a wide range in luminosity (factor of ~100) and HI gas mass. We combine multiple public data-sets (UKIDSS near-infrared imaging, ALFALFA HI gas masses, GOLDMine photometry). After excluding highly inclined systems, we define three samples where galaxies are selected by their B-band luminosity, H-band luminosity, and HI gas mass. We visually assign bars using the high resolution H-band imaging from UKIDSS. When all morphologies are included, the barred fraction is ~17-24% while for morphologically selected discs, we find that the barred fraction in Virgo is ~29-34%: it does not depend strongly on how the sample is defined and does not show variations with luminosity or HI gas mass. The barred fraction depends most strongly on the morphological composition of the sample: when the disc populations are separated into lenticulars (S0--S0/a), early-type spirals (Sa--Sb), and late-type spirals (Sbc--Sm), we find that the early-type spirals have a higher barred fraction (~45-50%) compared to the lenticulars and late-type spirals (~22-36%). This difference may be due to the higher baryon fraction of early-type discs which makes them more susceptible to bar instabilities. We do not find any evidence of barred galaxies being preferentially blue.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to Ap

Essays in Corporate Finance

This dissertation consists of three chapters in corporate finance and private equity. Chapter 1, “Incentives of Private Equity General Partners from Future Fundraising”, co-authored with Ji-Woong Chung, Berk Sensoy and Michael Weisbach, studies the incentives of private equity general partners (GPs). Lifetime incomes of GPs are affected by their current funds’ performance not only directly, through carried interest profit-sharing provisions, but also indirectly by the effect of the current fund’s performance on GP’s abilities to raise capital for future funds. In the context of a rational learning model, which we show better matches the empirical relations between future fundraising and current performance than behavioral alternatives, we estimate that indirect pay for performance from future fundraising is of the same order of magnitude as direct pay for performance from carried interest. Consistent with the learning framework, indirect pay for performance is stronger when managerial abilities are more scalable and weaker when current performance is less informative about ability. Specifically, it is stronger for buyout funds than for venture capital funds, and declines in the sequence of a partnership’s funds. Total pay for performance in private equity is both considerably larger and much more heterogeneous than implied by the carried interest alone. Our framework can be adapted to estimate indirect pay for performance in other asset management settings. Uncertainty is ubiquitous in financial markets, and market participants form expectations and learn about parameters, which may be the ability of general partners or the quality of a firm’s governance structure. Assessing the quality of a firm\u27s governance is valuable, which might explain the recent growth of the governance industry. Yet, governance indices have been criticized by researchers and practitioners alike, mainly on the grounds of overlooking firms\u27 heterogeneity and their specific governance needs. Chapter 2, “D&O Insurance and IPO Performance: what can we learn from insurers?”, co-authored with Martin Boyer, provides new insights into the ability of directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurers to price risk, and in particular risk related to governance characteristics. Therefore, learning by investors about governance quality could be facilitated by providing investors with a market-based assessment of governance as reflected in the D&O insurance premium. We investigate whether a firm’s D&O liability insurance contract at the time of the IPO is related to insured firms’ first year post-IPO performance. We find that insurers charge a higher premium per dollar of coverage to protect the directors and officers of firms that will subsequently have poor first year post-IPO stock performance. A higher price of coverage is also associated with a higher post-IPO volatility and lower Sharpe ratio. Our results are robust to various econometric specifications and suggest that even when the high level of information asymmetry inherent to the IPO context prevails, insurers have information about the firms’ prospects that should be valuable to outside investors. In Chapter 3, “A Learning-Based Approach to Evaluating Boards of Directors”, I develop a general framework based on a theoretical model of learning to assess how investors react to the appointment of new directors. Using predictions from a learning model, this chapter exploits the cross-sectional variation in the learning-induced decline in stock return volatility over director tenure to infer the marginal value of different kinds of directors. This new framework confirms prior empirical findings and documents new results. For example, directors joining better compensated boards have higher marginal value while the marginal value of a director joining an entrenched board is muted. Furthermore, the estimates imply that governance related uncertainty associated with the arrival of a new director accounts for 7% of return volatility, shedding light on the extent to which governance matters

Fuzzy logic control for camera tracking system

A concept utilizing fuzzy theory has been developed for a camera tracking system to provide support for proximity operations and traffic management around the Space Station Freedom. Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic based reasoning are used in a control system which utilizes images from a camera and generates required pan and tilt commands to track and maintain a moving target in the camera's field of view. This control system can be implemented on a fuzzy chip to provide an intelligent sensor for autonomous operations. Capabilities of the control system can be expanded to include approach, handover to other sensors, caution and warning messages

Quantum chaos: an introduction via chains of interacting spins-1/2

We introduce aspects of quantum chaos by analyzing the eigenvalues and the eigenstates of quantum many-body systems. The properties of quantum systems whose classical counterparts are chaotic differ from those whose classical counterparts are not chaotic. The spectrum of the first exhibits repulsion of the energy levels. This is one of the main signatures of quantum chaos. We show how level repulsion develops in one-dimensional systems of interacting spins 1/2 which are devoid of random elements and involve only two-body interactions. In addition to the statistics of the eigenvalues, we analyze how the structure of the eigenstates may indicate chaos. The programs used to obtain the data are available online.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Pay for Performance from Future Fund Flows: The Case of Private Equity

Lifetime incomes of private equity general partners are affected by their current funds’ performance through both carried interest profit sharing provisions, and also by the effect of the current fund’s performance on general partners’ abilities to raise capital for future funds. We present a learning-based framework for estimating the market-based pay for performance arising from future fundraising. For the typical first-time private equity fund, we estimate that implicit pay for performance from expected future fundraising is approximately the same order of magnitude as the explicit pay for performance general partners receive from carried interest in their current fund, implying that the performance-sensitive component of general partner revenue is about twice as large as commonly discussed. Consistent with the learning framework, we find that implicit pay for performance is stronger when managerial abilities are more scalable and weaker when current performance contains less new information about ability. Specifically, implicit pay for performance is stronger for buyout funds compared to venture capital funds, and declines in the sequence of a partnership’s funds. Our framework can be adapted to estimate implicit pay for performance in other asset management settings in which future fund flows and compensation depend on current performance.Private equity; Venture capital; Fundraising; Compensation; Incentives

From Usability Studies to User Experience: Designing Library Services at the University of Kansas

The University of Kansas (KU) Libraries first made their discovery tool, Primo (Ex Libris), available to their users in the fall of 2013. Since that time, in spite of many upgrades and improvements, most librarians and library staff are still not using the tool for their own research. Last year, librarians from KU presented their findings at the Charleston Conference using a survey given to KU librarians that asked them to compare Primo to Google Scholar and their favorite databases. Librarians were asked to compare the three and make recommendations for improving Primo. This year, KU librarians designed a much briefer survey and asked all library staff to participate, including student assistants. Library staff were asked to use Primo to conduct research on a topic of their choice and use all aspects of Primo to find relevant results. They were then asked to describe what they used in Primo to lead them to helpful information resources and rank the first 10 results from their final search. The purpose of this survey is to discern how our colleagues use Primo and how successful they are in retrieving the information they need when using this search tool. This study will help KU Libraries develop training for library staff in the use of this new mode of discovery and access. The search terms used in this study will also be useful in helping the discovery implementation team recreate the searches to test Primo in the future, after scheduled upgrades, in order to detect noticeable improvements or problems with the search results