1,522 research outputs found
The Institutional Structure and the Cost of Bank Loans: an International Comparison
In recent years international comparisons emphasized the importance of institutional and legal factors in capital market development and the performance of private firms. Here that approach is applied to the pricing of bank loans. Loan rates depend on contract parameters such as risk, the existence of covenants and loan size. Syndicate structure and the number of lenders also determine the cost of borrowing. Loan prices are also negatively impacted if the lending banks operate as part of larger conglomerates. Loan prices are also shown to depend on a number of institutional factors, such as the quality of protection of creditor rights and the quality of law enforcement. Curiously, we find that contracts with customers in "French tradition" countries were priced lower, as if having lower risk, than others, other things held equal. This is not in line with other segments of the literature on international capital market differences and institutional factors. It suggests that differences across legal traditions are more complicated than previously understood
Direct observation of twist mode in electroconvection in I52
I report on the direct observation of a uniform twist mode of the director
field in electroconvection in I52. Recent theoretical work suggests that such a
uniform twist mode of the director field is responsible for a number of
secondary bifurcations in both electroconvection and thermal convection in
nematics. I show here evidence that the proposed mechanisms are consistent with
being the source of the previously reported SO2 state of electroconvection in
I52. The same mechanisms also contribute to a tertiary Hopf bifurcation that I
observe in electroconvection in I52. There are quantitative differences between
the experiment and calculations that only include the twist mode. These
differences suggest that a complete description must include effects described
by the weak-electrolyte model of electroconvection
The QUEST RR Lyrae Survey II: The Halo Overdensities in the First Catalog
The first catalog of the RR Lyrae stars (RRLS) in the Galactic halo by the
QUEST Survey has been searched for significant overdensities that may be debris
from disrupted dwarf galaxies or globular clusters. Away from the major
overdensities, the distribution of these stars is adequately fit by a smooth
halo model, in which the flattening of the halo decreases with increasing
galactocentric distance (Preston et al 1991). This model was used to estimate
the ``background'' of RRLS on which the halo overdensities are overlaid. A
procedure was developed for recognizing groups of stars that constitute
significant overdensities with respect to this background. To test this
procedure, a Monte Carlo routine was used to make artificial RRLS surveys that
follow the smooth halo model, but with Poisson distributed noise in the numbers
of RRLS and, within limits, random variations in the positions and magnitudes
of the artificial stars. The artificial surveys created by this routine were
examined for significant groups in exactly the same way as the QUEST survey.
These calculations provided estimates of the frequencies with which random
fluctuations produce significant groups. In the QUEST survey, there are six
significant overdensities that contain six or more stars and several smaller
ones. The small ones and possibly one or two of the larger ones may be
artifacts of statistical fluctuations, and they need to be confirmed by
measurements of radial velocity and/or proper motion. The most prominent groups
are the northern stream from the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy and a
large group in Virgo. Two other groups lie in the direction of the Monoceros
stream and at approximately the right distance for membership. Another group is
related to the globular cluster Palomar 5.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa
Mojave remote sensing field experiment
The Mojave Remote Sensing Field Experiment (MFE), conducted in June 1988, involved acquisition of Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS); C, L, and P-band polarimetric radar (AIRSAR) data; and simultaneous field observations at the Pisgah and Cima volcanic fields, and Lavic and Silver Lake Playas, Mojave Desert, California. A LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM) scene is also included in the MFE archive. TM-based reflectance and TIMS-based emissivity surface spectra were extracted for selected surfaces. Radiative transfer procedures were used to model the atmosphere and surface simultaneously, with the constraint that the spectra must be consistent with field-based spectral observations. AIRSAR data were calibrated to backscatter cross sections using corner reflectors deployed at target sites. Analyses of MFE data focus on extraction of reflectance, emissivity, and cross section for lava flows of various ages and degradation states. Results have relevance for the evolution of volcanic plains on Venus and Mars
- …