IS THERE A ROLE FOR GOVERNMENT SPONSORED ENTITIES WITHIN THE ORIGINATE-TO-DISTRIBUTE MODEL? EVIDENCE FROM PRIME AND SUBPRIME MORTGAGES

This paper examines a role for Government Sponsored Entity’s (GSE) within theoriginate-to-distribute model (OTD). The research determines if originated residential prime and subprime mortgages in the OTD market, have a positive correlation with housing foreclosures, by analyzing residential OTD rates in 2007 and comparing it to foreclosure rates in 2008 for all 51 states in the United States. This paper breaks down OTD mortgages into purchaser and loan typein order to determine a relationship between GSE OTD/government mortgage guarantees and foreclosure rates. The paper has limited scope due to data limitations; however, our results indicate that higher levels of residential mortgage OTD rates on a state-wide level, causes foreclosure rates to increase in the US between 2007 and 2008

Dynamical Expansion of H II Regions from Ultracompact to Compact Sizes in Turbulent, Self-Gravitating Molecular Clouds

The nature of ultracompact H II regions (UCHRs) remains poorly determined. In particular, they are about an order of magnitude more common than would be expected if they formed around young massive stars and lasted for one dynamical time, around 10^4 yr. We here perform three-dimensional numerical simulations of the expansion of an H II region into self-gravitating, radiatively cooled gas, both with and without supersonic turbulent flows. In the laminar case, we find that H II region expansion in a collapsing core produces nearly spherical shells, even if the ionizing source is off-center in the core. This agrees with analytic models of blast waves in power-law media. In the turbulent case, we find that the H II region does not disrupt the central collapsing region, but rather sweeps up a shell of gas in which further collapse occurs. Although this does not constitute triggering, as the swept-up gas would eventually have collapsed anyway, it does expose the collapsing regions to ionizing radiation. We suggest that these regions of secondary collapse, which will not all themselves form massive stars, may form the bulk of observed UCHRs. As the larger shell will take over 10^5 years to complete its evolution, this could solve the timescale problem. Our suggestion is supported by the ubiquitous observation of more diffuse emission surrounding UCHRs.Comment: accepted to ApJ, 40 pages, 13 b/w figures, changes from v1 include analytic prediction of radio luminosity, better description of code testing, and many minor changes also in response to refere

The Inability of Ambipolar Diffusion to set a Characteristic Mass Scale in Molecular Clouds

We investigate the question of whether ambipolar diffusion (ion-neutral drift) determines the smallest length and mass scale on which structure forms in a turbulent molecular cloud. We simulate magnetized turbulence in a mostly neutral, uniformly driven, turbulent medium, using a three-dimensional, two-fluid, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) code modified from Zeus-MP. We find that substantial structure persists below the ambipolar diffusion scale because of the propagation of compressive slow MHD waves at smaller scales. Contrary to simple scaling arguments, ambipolar diffusion thus does not suppress structure below its characteristic dissipation scale as would be expected for a classical diffusive process. We have found this to be true for the magnetic energy, velocity, and density. Correspondingly, ambipolar diffusion leaves the clump mass spectrum unchanged. Ambipolar diffusion appears unable to set a characteristic scale for gravitational collapse and star formation in turbulent molecular clouds.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures. ApJ accepte

A Bayesian regression tree approach to identify the effect of nanoparticles' properties on toxicity profiles

We introduce a Bayesian multiple regression tree model to characterize relationships between physico-chemical properties of nanoparticles and their in-vitro toxicity over multiple doses and times of exposure. Unlike conventional models that rely on data summaries, our model solves the low sample size issue and avoids arbitrary loss of information by combining all measurements from a general exposure experiment across doses, times of exposure, and replicates. The proposed technique integrates Bayesian trees for modeling threshold effects and interactions, and penalized B-splines for dose- and time-response surface smoothing. The resulting posterior distribution is sampled by Markov Chain Monte Carlo. This method allows for inference on a number of quantities of potential interest to substantive nanotoxicology, such as the importance of physico-chemical properties and their marginal effect on toxicity. We illustrate the application of our method to the analysis of a library of 24 nano metal oxides.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AOAS797 in the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Effects of contextual interference (CI) in basic squash shots practice / Ebby Waqqash and Jeffrey Low

The purpose of this study was to compare block and random practice in learning basic squash shots. Eight university students were randomly assigned to two groups; the block practice group and the random practice group. The block practice group performed 10 minutes of forehand stroke, followed by another 10 minutes of backhand stroke. The random practice group played against themselves in a 1 on 1 real-match situation for 20 minutes. Three tests were administered to evaluate the participants’ performance: pretest, posttest (acquisition) and retention test. Results showed the block practice (M=16, SD=.816) has better skill learning effect in the acquisition phase compared to random practice (M=15.75, SD=2.22). However, the random practice (M=18.25, SD=2.22) outperformed the block practice (M=10.25, SD=1.26) in the retention phase. Based on the finding of this study, unstructured and real-match situation practice facilitates better learning by reconstructing the learners’ action plan each time a skill is performed

Fitness implications of seasonal climate variation in Columbian ground squirrels

The influence of climate change on the fitness of wild populations is often studied in the context of the spring onset of the reproductive season. This focus is relevant for climate influences on reproductive success, but neglects other fitness- relevant periods (e.g., autumn preparation for overwintering). We examined variation in climate variables (temperature, rainfall, snowfall, and snowpack) across the full annual cycle of Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus) for 21 years. We investigated seasonal climate variables that were associated with fitness variables, climate variables that exhibited directional changes across the study period, and finally observed declines in fitness (-0.03 units/year; total decline = 37%) that were associated with directional changes in climate variables. Annual fitness of adult female ground squirrels was positively associated with spring temperature (r = 0.69) and early summer rainfall (r = 0.56) and negatively associated with spring snow conditions (r = -0.44 to -0.66). Across the 21 years, spring snowmelt has become significantly delayed (r = 0.48) and summer rainfall became significantly reduced (r = -0.53). Using a standardized partial regression model, we found that directional changes in the timing of spring snowmelt and early summer rainfall (i.e., progressively drier summers) had moderate influences on annual fitness, with the latter statistically significant (rho = -0.314 and 0.437, respectively). The summer period corresponds to prehibernation fattening of young and adult ground squirrels. Had we focused on a single point in time (viz. the onset of the breeding season), we would have underestimated the influences of climate change on our population. Rather, we obtained a comprehensive understanding of the influences of climate change on individual fitness by investigating the full lifecycle