Banks' risk assessment of Swedish SMEs

Building on the literatures on asymmetric information and risk taking, this paper applies conjoint experiments to investigate lending officers' probabilities of supporting credit to established or existing SMEs. Using a sample of 114 Swedish lending officers, we test hypotheses concerning how information on the borrower's ability to repay the loan; alignment of risk preferences; and risk sharing affect their willingness to grant credit. Results suggest that features that reduce the risk to the bank and shift the risk to the borrower have the largest impact. The paper highlights the interaction between factors that influence the credit decision. Implications for SMEs, banks and research are discussed

Fast spectral projection algorithms for density-matrix computations

We present a fast algorithm for the construction of a spectral projector. This algorithm allows us to compute the density matrix, as used in e.g the Kohn-Sham iteration, and so obtain the electron density. We compute the spectral projector by constructing the matrix sign function through a simple polynomial recursion. We present several matrix representations for fast computation within this recursion, using bases with controlled space-spatial frequency localization. In particular we consider wavelet and local cosine bases. Since spectral projectors appear in many contexts, we expect many additional applications of our approach. Subject Classification: 65D15 65T99 81C06 42C99 Keywords: spectral projectors, density matrix, fast algorithms, wavelets, partitioned SVD

Dealkylation studies on inhibited acetylcholinesterase

1. A rapid method for measuring the rate of dealkylation of organophosporus-inhibited enzymes is described. 2. The dealkylation rates have been measured for acetylcholinesterase inhibited by isopropyl, sec.-butyl, 1,2-dimethylpropyl, 1,2,2-trimethylpropyl and cyclohexyl methylphosphonofluoridate, and by di-isopropyl phosphorofluoridate; they are first-order under the conditions used