14,060 research outputs found
Giant coherence in driven systems
We study the noise-induced currents and reliability or coherence of transport
in two different classes of rocking ratchets. For this, we consider the motion
of Brownian particles in the over damped limit in both adiabatic and
non-adiabatic regimes subjected to unbiased temporally symmetric and asymmetric
periodic driving force. In the case of a time symmetric driving, we find that
even in the presence of a spatially symmetric simple sinusoidal potential,
highly coherent transport occurs. These ratchet systems exhibit giant coherence
of transport in the regime of parameter space where unidirectional currents in
the deterministic case are observed. Outside this parameter range, i.e., when
current vanishes in the deterministic regime, coherence in transport is very
low. The transport coherence decreases as a function of temperature and is a
non-monotonic function of the amplitude of driving. The transport becomes
unreliable as we go from the adiabatic to the non-adiabatic domain of
operation.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, replaced by the version to appear in JSTA
Strong interaction of a turbulent spot with a shock-induced separation bubble
Direct numerical simulations have been conducted to study the passage of a turbulent spot through a shock-induced separation bubble. Localized blowing is used to trip the boundary layer well upstream of the shock impingement, leading to mature turbulent spots at impingement, with a length comparable to the length of the separation zone. Interactions are simulated at free stream Mach numbers of two and four, for isothermal (hot) wall boundary conditions. The core of the spot is seen to tunnel through the separation bubble, leading to a transient reattachment of the flow. Recovery times are long due to the influence of the calmed region behind the spot. The propagation speed of the trailing interface of the spot decreases during the interaction and a substantial increase in the lateral spreading of the spot was observed. A conceptual model based on the growth of the lateral shear layer near the wingtips of the spot is used to explain the change in lateral growth rat
On credit spread slopes and predicting bank risk
The authors examine whether credit-spread curves, engendered by a mandatory subordinated-debt requirement for banks, would help predict bank risk. They extract the credit-spread curves each quarter for each bank in our sample, and analyze the information content of credit-spread slopes. They find that credit-spread slopes are significant predictors of future credit spreads. However, credit-spread slopes do not provide significant additional information on future bank-risk variables, over and above other bank-specific and market-wide information.Bank capital ; Risk
Monitoring and controlling bank risk: does risky debt serve any purpose?
To examine whether mandating banks to issue subordinated debt would enhance market monitoring and control risk-taking, the authors extract the credit-spread curve for each banking firm in their sample. After controlling for changes in market and liquidity variables, they find that changes in credit spreads do not reflect changes in bank risk variables. The result is robust to firm type, examination rating, size, leverage, and profitability, as well as to different model specifications. They also find that issuing subordinated debt does not alter banks' risk-taking behavior. They conclude that a mandatory subordinated debt requirement for banks is unlikely to provide the intended benefits of enhancing risk-monitoring or controlling risk-taking.Bank capital ; Risk
Improved Stack-Slide Searches for Gravitational-Wave Pulsars
We formulate and optimize a computational search strategy for detecting
gravitational waves from isolated, previously-unknown neutron stars (that is,
neutron stars with unknown sky positions, spin frequencies, and spin-down
parameters). It is well known that fully coherent searches over the relevant
parameter-space volumes are not computationally feasible, and so more
computationally efficient methods are called for. The first step in this
direction was taken by Brady & Creighton (2000), who proposed and optimized a
two-stage, stack-slide search algorithm. We generalize and otherwise improve
upon the Brady-Creighton scheme in several ways. Like Brady & Creighton, we
consider a stack-slide scheme, but here with an arbitrary number of
semi-coherent stages and with a coherent follow-up stage at the end. We find
that searches with three semi-coherent stages are significantly more efficient
than two-stage searches (requiring about 2-5 times less computational power for
the same sensitivity) and are only slightly less efficient than searches with
four or more stages. We calculate the signal-to-noise ratio required for
detection, as a function of computing power and neutron star spin-down-age,
using our optimized searches.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX
Tanzanian Couples' Perspectives on Gender Equity, Relationship Power, and Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the RESPECT Study.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is widely prevalent in Tanzania. Inequitable gender norms manifest in men's and women's attitudes about power and decision making in intimate relationships and are likely to play an important role in determining the prevalence of IPV. We used data from the RESPECT study, a randomized controlled trial that evaluated an intervention to prevent sexually transmitted infections in a cohort of young Tanzanian men and women, to examine the relationship between couples' attitudes about IPV, relationship power, and sexual decision making, concordance on these issues, and women's reports of IPV over 12 months. Women expressed less equitable attitudes than men at baseline. Over time, participants' attitudes tended to become more equitable and women's reports of IPV declined substantially. Multivariable logistic regression analyses suggested that inequitable attitudes and couple discordance were associated with higher risk of IPV. Our findings point to the need for a better understanding of the role that perceived or actual imbalances in relationship power have in heightening IPV risk. The decline in women's reports of IPV and the trend towards gender-equitable attitudes indicate that concerted efforts to reduce IPV and promote gender equity have the potential to make a positive difference in the relatively short term
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