Influence of music genre and composition on entertainment noise limits

Liquor licensing authorities across Australia typically require an entertainment noise test to be conducted before a venue can host amplified entertainment. The purpose of this test is to simulate live entertainment in order to determine the maximum permissible noise source limits allowed for the venue. In this paper, several disadvantages of the current method used for entertainment noise testing are identified and discussed. It was found that the choice of music can affect the resulting source noise level limits. An alternative approach has been suggested which involves playing band-limited pink noise across the 63 to 2kHz octave bands. A correction is then applied to determine the source noise level limits associated with different genres of music. The advantages of this method are that it reduces the time required to conduct the test, the nuisance caused to neighbouring premises is reduced and the variance in source noise level limits caused by different choice of test music is eliminated

Valence Quark Spin Distribution Functions

The hyperfine interactions of the constituent quark model provide a natural explanation for many nucleon properties, including the Delta-N splitting, the charge radius of the neutron, and the observation that the proton's quark distribution function ratio d(x)/u(x)->0 as x->1. The hyperfine-perturbed quark model also makes predictions for the nucleon spin-dependent distribution functions. Precision measurements of the resulting asymmetries A_1^p(x) and A_1^n(x) in the valence region can test this model and thereby the hypothesis that the valence quark spin distributions are "normal".Comment: 16 pages, 2 Postscript figure

Scope for Credit Risk Diversification

This paper considers a simple model of credit risk and derives the limit distribution of losses under different assumptions regarding the structure of systematic risk and the nature of exposure or firm heterogeneity. We derive fat-tailed correlated loss distributions arising from Gaussian risk factors and explore the potential for risk diversification. Where possible the results are generalised to non-Gaussian distributions. The theoretical results indicate that if the firm parameters are heterogeneous but come from a common distribution, for sufficiently large portfolios there is no scope for further risk reduction through active portfolio management. However, if the firm parameters come from different distributions, then further risk reduction is possible by changing the portfolio weights. In either case, neglecting parameter heterogeneity can lead to underestimation of expected losses. But, once expected losses are controlled for, neglecting parameter heterogeneity can lead to overestimation of risk, whether measured by unexpected loss or value-at-risk

Science Opportunities offered by Mercury's Ice-Bearing Polar Deposits

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Unlocking the Climate Record Stored within Mars’ Polar Layered Deposits

In the icy beds of its polar layered deposits (PLD), Mars likely possesses a record of its recent climate history, analogous to terrestrial ice sheets that contain records of Earth's past climate. Both northern and southern PLDs store information on the climatic and atmospheric state during the deposition of each layer (WPs: Becerra et al.; Smith et al). Reading the climate record stored in these layers requires detailed measurements of layer composition, thickness, isotope variability, and near-surface atmospheric measurements. We identify four fundamental questions that must be answered in order to interpret this climate record and decipher the recent climatic history of Mars: 1. Fluxes: What are the present and past fluxes of volatiles, dust, and other materials into and out of the polar regions? 2. Forcings: How do orbital/axial forcing and exchange with other reservoirs affect those fluxes? 3. Layer Processes: What chemical and physical processes form and modify layers? 4. Record: What is the timespan, completeness, and temporal resolution of the climate history recorded in the PLD? In a peer reviewed report (1), we detailed a sequence of missions, instruments, and architecture needed to answer these questions. Here, we present the science drivers and a mission concept for a polar lander that would enable a future reading of the past few million years of the Martian climate record. The mission addresses as-yet-unachieved science goals of the current Decadal Survey and of MEPAG for obtaining a record of Mars climate and has parallel goals to the NEXSAG and ICE-SAG reports

Initial Public Offerings and the Firm Location

The firm geographic location matters in IPOs because investors have a strong preference for newly issued local stocks and provide abnormal demand in local offerings. Using equity holdings data for more than 53,000 households, we show the probability to participate to the stock market and the proportion of the equity wealth is abnormally increasing with the volume of the IPOs inside the investor region. Upon nearly the universe of the 167,515 going public and private domestic manufacturing firms, we provide consistent evidence that the isolated private firms have higher probability to go public, larger IPO underpricing cross-sectional average and volatility, and less pronounced long-run under-performance. Similar but opposite evidence holds for the local concentration of the investor wealth. These effects are economically relevant and robust to local delistings, IPO market timing, agglomeration economies, firm location endogeneity, self-selection bias, and information asymmetries, among others. Findings suggest IPO waves have a strong geographic component, highlight that underwriters significantly under-estimate the local demand component thus leaving unexpected money on the table, and support state-contingent but constant investor propensity for risk