How Much of ‘Home Field Advantage’ Comes from the Fans? A Natural Experiment from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Home field advantage has been a commonly discussed and researched topic in sports. How much of this advantage is due to the home team’s supporters’ physical attendance at the game where they might encourage their team, intimidate the opponent, and influence game officials? We utilize the unique natural experiment of the COVID-19 pandemic and consider the case of American professional (NFL) and collegiate (NCAA) football to examine this question. We measure how typical spreads, relative to home teams, changed in the 2020 season compared to their historical levels, and we determine that roughly half of what football fans and analysts consider to be home field advantage emanates from spectators. Generally, the betting market was rather accurate in its predictions of how football game results would change in 2020, during the pandemic, so that wagering strategies failed when based on the betting market possibly underappreciating or overcorrecting for home field advantage without fans

Analyzing the Efficiency of Response to News Regarding Legalization of Sports Wagering

A landmark decision (Murphy v. NCAA) by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in 2018 ruled the federal government could not prohibit states from allowing sports wagering. While the implications of this decision are far reaching at both an industry and societal level, our study assesses the market response to information available throughout the various phases leading up to this decision by SCOTUS. The timeline of events preceding the SCOTUS decision is tracked, and stock performances of relevant, publicly traded firms are analyzed across three inflection points. Findings suggest the market failed to adequately acknowledge key events indicating the likelihood of the eventual decision by SCOTUS, instead only responding once its formal ruling was released on the final decision date. These findings raise questions about the efficiency of markets reacting to available information and the potential for investors to profit in similar future situations

Monitoring the Petermann Ice Island with TanDEM-X

This paper presents the processing of TanDEM-X acquisitions for the monitoring of the topography of the Petermann ice island. In this particular case the area under study is continuously moving and the acquisition geometry is changing, so the processing of the iceberg’s DEMs is challenging and additional effects are to be considered. The SAR processing chain used is presented and the results obtained summarized, showing the effects and limitations observed during the process

Predicting Extreme Returns and Portfolio Management Implications

We consider which readily observable characteristics of individual stocks (e.g., option implied volatility, accounting data, analyst data) may be used to forecast subsequent extreme price movements. We are the first to explicitly consider the predictive influence of option implied volatility in such a framework, which we unsurprisingly find to be an important indicator of future extreme price movements. However, after controlling for implied volatility levels, other factors, particularly firm age and size, still have additional predictive power of extreme future returns. Furthermore, excluding predicted extreme return stocks leads to a portfolio that has lower risk (standard deviation of returns) without sacrificing performance

Comparing U.S. and European Market Volatility Responses to Interest Rate Policy Announcements

We examine the response of U.S. (VIX) and German (VDAX) implied volatility indices to the announcement of interest rate policy decisions by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and the European Central Bank (ECB). We confirm prior findings that VIX declines on FOMC meetings days. We present new findings that indicate that VDAX declines on FOMC meeting days, but is not related to ECB meeting days. VIX is unrelated to ECB meeting days. Taken collectively, our results indicate a prominent position for the FOMC in determining uncertainty levels both domestically and abroad relative to no relation between uncertainty levels and the ECB. JE

Do Senior Citizens Prefer Dividends? Local Clienteles vs. Firm Characteristics

We examine the payout policy of U.S. firms over the period 1980-2008. Prior research indicates that firm characteristics, managerial preferences, and investor clienteles are all important factors in setting payout policy. Counter to the oft-reported positive relation between senior citizens and the use of dividends, our results indicate that senior citizens are either indifferent between dividends and repurchases or demand dividends and have no influence over firm policy. The evolution of firm characteristics, including the average firm size, age, and volatility of earnings over time best explains payout policy. Further, manager preference for flexibility drives the payout decision. JE

Drosophila adducin regulates Dlg phosphorylation and targeting of Dlg to the synapse and epithelial membrane

AbstractAdducin is a cytoskeletal protein having regulatory roles that involve actin filaments, functions that are inhibited by phosphorylation of adducin by protein kinase C. Adducin is hyperphosphorylated in nervous system tissue in patients with the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and mice lacking β-adducin have impaired synaptic plasticity and learning. We have found that Drosophila adducin, encoded by hu-li tai shao (hts), is localized to the post-synaptic larval neuromuscular junction (NMJ) in a complex with the scaffolding protein Discs large (Dlg), a regulator of synaptic plasticity during growth of the NMJ. hts mutant NMJs are underdeveloped, whereas over-expression of Hts promotes Dlg phosphorylation, delocalizes Dlg away from the NMJ, and causes NMJ overgrowth. Dlg is a component of septate junctions at the lateral membrane of epithelial cells, and we show that Hts regulates Dlg localization in the amnioserosa, an embryonic epithelium, and that embryos doubly mutant for hts and dlg exhibit defects in epithelial morphogenesis. The phosphorylation of Dlg by the kinases PAR-1 and CaMKII has been shown to disrupt Dlg targeting to the NMJ and we present evidence that Hts regulates Dlg targeting to the NMJ in muscle and the lateral membrane of epithelial cells by controlling the protein levels of PAR-1 and CaMKII, and consequently the extent of Dlg phosphorylation

Optimization Schemes for Selective Molecular Cleavage with Tailored Ultrashort Laser Pulses

We present some approaches to the computation of ultra-fast laser pulses capable of selectively breaking molecular bonds. The calculations are based on a mixed quantum-classical description: The electrons are treated quantum mechanically (making use of time-dependent density-functional theory), whereas the nuclei are treated classically. The temporal shape of the pulses is tailored to maximise a control target functional which is designed to produce the desired molecular cleavage. The precise definition of this functional is a crucial ingredient: we explore expressions based on the forces, on the momenta and on the velocities of the nuclei. The algorithm used to find the optimum pulse is also relevant; we test both direct gradient-free algorithms, as well as schemes based on formal optimal control theory. The tests are performed both on one dimensional models of atomic chains, and on first-principles descriptions of molecules.Comment: 51 page