US and Canadian term structures of interest rates: A forecasting comparison

This paper provides empirical evidence for the US and Canadian yield curves using a one- and two-factor Generalised Vasicek model, using a data set comprised of daily panel data over the period between 2003 and 2011, which includes the recent global financial crisis. The two-factor model is found to have a good fit for both the US and Canadian yield curves. We also compare the forecasting performance of the term structure model with those from ARIMA, ARFIMA and Nelson-Siegel models. We find that for Canada the Nelson-Siegel model dominates, while for the US the ARFIMA model has a satisfactory performance

The maximum term of a power series

Let ∑n=0∞anzλn be a power series, representing an analytic function f(z) in the disc |z|<R. A characterization for the type of such functions was obtained by the authors [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 81(1981), 1-7] in terms of the maximum term and rank. It is proved in this paper by means of an example, that a similar relation does not hold in general for lower type and sufficient conditions have been obtained for the validity of the corresponding result for lower type. Alternative coefficient characterization for type and lower type have been given and a necessary and sufficient condition for the analytic function f(z) to be of perfectly regular growth has been obtained

A prospective comparative study of intestinal anastomosis, single layer extramucosal versus double layer

Background: Intestinal anastomosis is an operative procedure that is of central importance in the practice of surgery. Intestinal anastomosis after resection of bowel may be of various types and techniques. This prospective comparative study is performed to evaluate the safety in term of anastomotic leak of single layer interrupted extramucosal technique as compared to conventional double layer technique.Methods: The patients selected for this study are those who were admitted with various clinical conditions requiring resection and anastomosis of small or large bowel presented to P.D.U. Medical College & Hospital, Rajkot between a period of August 2012 to December 2014. A total of 50 patients were included in the study. All the patients above the age of 18 years and less than 60 years, requiring intestinal anastomosis on emergency or electively, were included in the study and those requiring anastomosis to esophageal, gastric and duodenal anastomosis were excluded and randomly allotted single layer and double layer groups and results such as anastomotic leak rate, duration for anastomosis, number of suture material required noted.Results: Mean duration required for single layer anastomosis was 19.6 minutes and for double layer anastomosis was 29.5 minutes and double number of suture material used in double layer anastomosis with equal anastomotic leak rate (6%) in each group.Conclusions: Single layer interrupted extramucosal technique required significantly less duration for anastomosis, is cost effective with no significant difference in anastomotic leak rate and  as safe as conventional double layer technique.

Fluctuations in the Irreversible Decay of Turbulent Energy

A fluctuation law of the energy in freely-decaying, homogeneous and isotropic turbulence is derived within standard closure hypotheses for 3D incompressible flow. In particular, a fluctuation-dissipation relation is derived which relates the strength of a stochastic backscatter term in the energy decay equation to the mean of the energy dissipation rate. The theory is based on the so-called ``effective action'' of the energy history and illustrates a Rayleigh-Ritz method recently developed to evaluate the effective action approximately within probability density-function (PDF) closures. These effective actions generalize the Onsager-Machlup action of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics to turbulent flow. They yield detailed, concrete predictions for fluctuations, such as multi-time correlation functions of arbitrary order, which cannot be obtained by direct PDF methods. They also characterize the mean histories by a variational principle.Comment: 26 pages, Latex Version 2.09, plus seceq.sty, a stylefile for sequential numbering of equations by section. This version includes new discussion of the physical interpretation of the formal Rayleigh-Ritz approximation. The title is also change

Turbulence Fluctuations and New Universal Realizability Conditions in Modelling

General turbulent mean statistics are shown to be characterized by a variational principle. The variational functionals, or ``effective actions'', have experimental consequences for turbulence fluctuations and are subject to realizability conditions of positivity and convexity. An efficient Rayleigh-Ritz algorithm is available to calculate approximate effective actions within PDF closures. Examples are given for Navier-Stokes and for a 3-mode system of Lorenz. The new realizability conditions succeed at detecting {\em a priori} the poor predictions of PDF closures even when the classical 2nd-order moment realizability conditions are satisfied.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX (Version 2.09), 3 figures, Postscript, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Controlling intense, ultrashort, laser-driven relativistic mega-ampere electron fluxes by a modest, static magnetic field

The guiding and control of ultrahigh flux, femtosecond relativistic electron pulses through solid density matter is of great importance for many areas of high energy density science. Efforts so far include the use of magnetic fields generated by the propagation of the electron pulse itself or the application of hundreds of Tesla magnitudes, pulsed external magnetic fields driven by either short pulse lasers or electrical pulses. Here we experimentally demonstrate the guiding of hundreds of keV mega-ampere electron pulses in a magnetized neodymium solid that has a very modest, easily available static field of 0.1 tesla. The electron pulses driven by an ultrahigh intensity, 30 femtosecond laser are shown to propagate beam-like, a distance as large as 5 mm in a high Z target (neodymium), their collimation improved and flux density enhanced nearly by a factor of 3. Particle-in-cell simulations in the appropriate parameter regime match the experimental observations. In addition, the simulations predict the occurrence of a novel, near-monochromatic feature towards the high energy end of the electron energy spectrum, which is tunable by the applied magnetic field strength. These results may prove valuable for fast electron beam-driven radiation sources, fast ignition of laser fusion, and laboratory astrophysics.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

The S troke H yperglycemia I nsulin N etwork E ffort ( SHINE ) trial protocol: a randomized, blinded, efficacy trial of standard vs. intensive hyperglycemia management in acute stroke

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102726/1/ijs12045.pd