New Equity Performance Following Chapter 11 Emergence

This body of research investigates how the performance of exchange-traded common equity from firms in Chapter 11 bankruptcy emergence compares with common stock from non-bankrupt competitors and recently public peers in short and long-term time horizons.  Return data are gathered for a sample of sixteen financially restructured companies, each paired with two non-distressed industry competitors and one recently-public peer.  Using the Capital Asset Pricing Model as a primary analytical tool, empirical tests show a positive correlation in equity returns among the samples of restructured and non-distressed market competitors and a stock underperformance from the sample of IPO competitors.  These results suggest that markets are better at judging the value of post-Chapter 11 companies relative to newly public companies and refute the theory of IPO price momentum

Peer Evaluation of Team Member Effectiveness as a Formative Educational Intervention

Peer evaluation of team member effectiveness is often used to complement cooperative learning in the classroom, by holding students accountable for their team contributions. Drawing on the tenants of self-determination theory, this study investigated the impacts of formative peer evaluation in university level team-based design projects. The hypothesis was that the introduction of formative peer evaluation cycles would result in a more student-centered learning climate, increased competence, reduced doubt, and improved student learning. Two semesters were compared in this quasi-experimental study where results of peer evaluation became modifiers to students’ grades in the final project. In only one of the semesters, peer evaluation was also used multiple times formatively to provide students with feedback and encourage changes in behavior without impacting grades. When formative peer evaluation was implemented, students earned higher grades on the final project and in the course and perceived a more student-centered learning environment, more competence, and less doubt about the course

Designing for Food Security: Portability and the Expansion of User Freedoms Through the COREPDS in Chhattisgarh, India

Food insecurity is a complex global problem, with approximately one in eight humans struggling with insufficient ac-cess to adequate nutrition. India accounts for the largest share of the world’s food-insecure population despite more than four decades of subsidized food production, distribution, and consumption. We report on the public distribu-tion of food through the COREPDS (centralized online real-time public distribution system), an ICT intervention in the public distribution system of Chhattisgarh, India. COREPDS is a theoretically driven ICT intervention that empowers households in Chhattisgarh by offering them the freedom to choose when, where, and how they wish to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to food access. We analyze the motivations to use ICTs to democratize food ac-cess and measure the extent to which geographic location and socioeconomic status affect utilization of user free-doms. Our analysis has significant implications for framing national ICT policies in ways that emphasize frugal, flexible, local alternatives to mega e-infrastructures

Electron focusing, mode spectroscopy and mass enhancement in small GaAs/AlGaAs rings

A new electron focusing effect has been discovered in small single and coupled GaAs/AlGaAs rings. The focusing in the single ring is attributed solely to internal orbits. The focusing effect allows the ring to be used as a small mass spectrometer. The focusing causes peaks in the magnetoresistance at low fields, and the peak positions were used to study the dispersion relation of the one-dimensional magnetoelectric subbands. The electron effective mass increases with the applied magnetic field by a factor of $50$, at a magnetic field of $0.5T$. This is the first time this increase has been measured directly. General agreement obtains between the experiment and the subband calculations for straight channels.Comment: 13 pages figures are available by reques

The effect of inter-edge Coulomb interactions on the transport between quantum Hall edge states

In a recent experiment, Milliken {\em et al.} demonstrated possible evidence for a Luttinger liquid through measurements of the tunneling conductance between edge states in the $\nu=1/3$ quantum Hall plateau. However, at low temperatures, a discrepancy exists between the theoretical predictions based on Luttinger liquid theory and experiment. We consider the possibility that this is due to long-range Coulomb interactions which become dominant at low temperatures. Using renormalization group methods, we calculate the cross-over behaviour from Luttinger liquid to the Coulomb interaction dominated regime. The cross-over behaviour thus obtained seems to resolve one of the discrepancies, yielding good agreement with experiment.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 2 postscript figures, tex file and figures have been uuencode

Assessing large-scale weekly cycles in meteorological variables: a review

Several studies have claimed to have found significant weekly cycles of meteorological variables appearing over large domains, which can hardly be related to urban effects exclusively. Nevertheless, there is still an ongoing scientific debate whether these large-scale weekly cycles exist or not, and some other studies fail to reproduce them with statistical significance. In addition to the lack of the positive proof for the existence of these cycles, their possible physical explanations have been controversially discussed during the last years. In this work we review the main results about this topic published during the recent two decades, including a summary of the existence or non-existence of significant weekly weather cycles across different regions of the world, mainly over the US, Europe and Asia. In addition, some shortcomings of common statistical methods for analyzing weekly cycles are listed. Finally, a brief summary of supposed causes of the weekly cycles, focusing on the aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions and their impact on meteorological variables as a result of the weekly cycles of anthropogenic activities, and possible directions for future research, is presented